


Hug Your Destiny

by The_Letter_X



Series: Contact [2]
Category: Monster Girl Encyclopedia, Original Work
Genre: Awkward Sexual Situations, Childhood Friends, Domestic Fluff, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Explicit Sexual Content, F/F, Family Bonding, Femdom, Fetish, Gender or Sex Swap, Harems, Idiots in Love, Interspecies Romance, Mad Science, Maids, Master/Servant, Monster Girl(s), Moresomes, Ritual Sex, Romance, Sex Magic, Sharing a Body, Transformation, Weirdness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:00:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 35,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25487389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Letter_X/pseuds/The_Letter_X
Summary: Hi, my name is Lyle, and I’m an 'Alp', that is, a man who turned into a Succubus. It all started when my best friend, Sally, came back from the dead... A lot's happened since then.Honestly, I’m still trying to sort myself out. This is the first day I’ve left my bedroom… well, since it happened. Now I'm off to meet a Queen and watch a gladiator fight a Dragon. Things have gotten really strange, but even in my worst moments I wouldn't trade my life for anything. I love the people in it too much.(Sequel to Contact with the Enemy)
Series: Contact [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1846288
Comments: 3
Kudos: 19





	1. Day One - Charlotte

The circle of chairs was supposed to make us feel connected, or something. It was the first time I’d been to something like this, but it came highly recommended. Apparently, there weren’t many people who could understand what I’d gone through, or, if they could, they couldn’t bring themselves to sympathize… anymore.

“Hi, my name is Dylan, and I’m an Alp.”

“Hi, Dylan.” The others chorused. I jumped a little. It’d happened a few times now, but I still wasn’t expecting that. The process here still mystified me. I… hadn’t really been paying attention during orientation, I admit.

The woman leading our group, Nicole, ostensibly an Alp herself, looked on with mild amusement, leaning back in her chair, and taking a swig from her ever-present bottle. She was a Satyros, a type of Beastman monster, goat-like and generally obsessed with alcohol. Judging by her smell, she seemed to be a typical example. Wine hung heavy in the air even on the other side of the room from her. Like many a Mamono, though, she somehow made it seem enticing instead of pitiable.

Her long blonde hair blocked out the top of her face, since her bangs hadn’t been cut in ages. Probably to keep the sun out of her no-doubt sensitive eyes. She stayed behind her desk, mostly, and despite the fact that she’d snickered a few times at some of the testimonies, and was pretty obviously masturbating, I got the feeling she was genuinely trying to help. She just had a different idea of how to do that.

“Thank you, Dylan,” she said, “Is there anything you’d like to share? Anything… interesting happen this week?”

Dylan, himself a Holstaurus with an absurdly large chest, only blushed and stuttered. “I… Well, I…”

“It’s okay,” she said, “you can tell us, we won’t judge.”

Dylan shuffled on his hooves a bit. What was it she wanted him to say? I had a guess, but…

“You’re looking a little…” Nicole paused, drawing it out, “fuller… Dylan, aren’t you?”

Ah. Alps, men who turned into monstergirls rather than incubi, for one reason or another, generally started off with smaller… uh, sexual characteristics, I guess, than most Mamono. Some never changed from that, essentially becoming the barely-reluctant tomboys of monstergirldom, but some of the others… went native.

“I… I sucked a cock.” Dylan whispered. The room was silent, everyone else frozen. This was apparently a big deal.

Nicole leaned forward. “Oh? And how did that make you feel?”

Dylan closed his eyes and looked down, his fists clenched. “I… liked it. A lot. I’m… I’m seeing him again tomorrow.” He seemed to panic, looking up at the group for support, “I couldn’t help it!”

No one said anything.

“It’s not… it’s not the end, guys! I’ll be back next week; I promise… I… I just want him to touch my chest a little…”

The middle of his sentence came out in a tone not unlike a Holstaur’s involuntary ‘moos’ generally did. Most everyone had heard it once before. Holstaurs were pretty common.

Wasn’t this kind of cruel? It wasn’t his fault he was so tempted. We all were.

“Hey, Dylan…?” I said, without thinking.

Dylan’s eyes swung to mine, and so did everyone else’s.

Nicole was the first to say something. “Something to add, Lyle?” She seemed genuinely curious. There was a lot of support from the crowd for those of us still resisting, but no one here seemed to want to acknowledge what was happening to all of us, inevitably.

“I just… I wanted to say that… well, I spent some time as a Holstaur. My wife, she has these necklaces that let you swap bodies, and… Anyway, not important. What is important is, I know how you feel. It’s okay.”

“…Really? You were a Holstaur? Is that possible?” Dylan asked. Most everyone seemed disbelieving, actually.

“Well, my wife sort of invented them? She’s a Lich, and…”

There were noises of general understanding and condolences.

Huh. Is every Lich like Faust? Is the world ready for that? Am I?

“A-anyway… The pressure, that horrible terrible pressure, the unbearable way you can feel it when people look at them?”

Dylan nodded, my words, giving voice to the feelings he was only barely hiding, enraptured him despite himself.

“It… all just makes it better when you finally get milked,” I said, somewhat embarrassed.

“…It’s really that good?” Dylan asked, at a whisper.

“Yeah. And, uh… I know it sounds dumb, but… if you get the urge to, uh… ‘moo’ a little?”

Dylan blushed bright red, spluttering denials, but I pressed through.

“Just go with it. It’s stupid how amazing it is.”

“I… I uh, I need to go!” He ran out of the room, hooves hitting the floor in a practiced rhythm. I’d never gotten the chance to try walking as a Holstaur, but Alps don’t get the instincts that most Mamono do. How long had he been like this, to be so practiced at it? And he was still fighting it?

A throaty ‘moo’ echoed in the empty hallway outside our meeting room, followed immediately by a delighted moan, and the sound of a body hitting the floor.

I stood up, as did Nicole, ready to go help, but a breathy; “I’moookay! …Oh, wow…” stopped us both.

“I’ll send Dylan her graduation packet later, I think.” Nicole said. It bothered me a little that she’d said ‘her’, but… Well, none of us would be Alps if we hadn’t decided, for one reason or another, even if just for a second, that being women, being Mamono, was what we wanted. For someone on her end of that process, complete acceptance, I guess most of these guys must seem pretty silly for trying to deny that desire after the fact. Dylan was clearly in the process of embracing the desire, judging by the escalating noises in the hallway. Acknowledging that wasn’t… wrong, exactly.

It was just sort of smug, and it rubbed me the wrong way. One of the biggest problems I had with Mamono cul- with our culture, generally, was this sort of self-satisfied self-righteousness found in the way Mamono treated the people they hunted, and to a lesser extent, these Alps, judging by their stories. It reminded me too much of the church, and it seemed a little too sinister, given the purity of what was actually on offer.

Infinite pleasure, eternal life, constant companionship, perfect compatibility, effortless self-improvement, better technology, safer cities, welcoming communities, bountiful foods, plentiful drink, succulent commodities, and all for free…

Any one of those things should be an easy sell to the peasants being crushed underfoot in the Pure Lands, with the conditions they were living in. Even the largest, most fantastical cities of Human-only provinces paled in comparison to a po-dunk demon village, let alone a proper city like Morningwood was. We didn’t have to worry about raids or traitors, and co-operation was the norm. Even the most antisocial magic-users still helped out when prompted. Our standards of living were ridiculous. I’d grown up starving in a two-bedroom home that could fit inside my current closet-space.

But somehow the messaging was not coming across.

I guess when you’re constantly rejected the way we are, it’s probably a little satisfying to watch people give in and discover how amazing it all actually is, but… the attitude puts people off. That, and the screaming about ‘loving you forever, whether you like it or not’… And the whole… capturing people thing.

It’s hard to blame them though, the husband-hunters. Starving for both love and affection, and actual nutrition, then stumbling onto a source of both, only for it to flee? When you know you could make it happy, that you’re not going to hurt it? That you’re willing to give it anything it wants, to be anything it wants, just so long as it’ll be yours in return, but that’s still not good enough? It’s enough to drive anyone nuts.

Fuck me… I’m so hungry.

I’ve only been a Demon for a few days, but it was already getting unbearable. There were other options, in particular, Golems produced a sort of powdered energy that was able to sustain any number of Mamono, but… It wasn’t plentiful, and it was awful. Just… fucking wretched. Like eating sand. Dry sand.

Mixing it into Holstaur milk helped a little, but it was still expensive. Paying top dollar for the right to eat sand that tasted like… well, I couldn’t say it tasted like ass, because I’d had ass. I’m a sex monster. It’s actually pretty good. That’s not the point.

The point is, I’m starting to understand why the city’s biggest industry is buying time with an Incubus. We’re a city of mostly-functional addicts, and there’s only barely enough supply.

Still, this was still better than being an Incubus, in my opinion. It was a cushy life, don’t get me wrong, and plenty of dudes were clearly quite happy with it, or there’d be a lot more Alps, but… Maybe they’d just managed themselves better. Trying to split my attentions between five different Mamono, six, really… that had been dumb. Really impressively dumb.

“Lyle?”

Huh?

“Uh, sorry, did you say something?”

Nicole was looking at me expectantly. “I asked if you wanted to share your story? It’s your first time here, right?”

“Ah, yeah.” I was embarrassed, but my bluish, purplish skin made it really hard to see if I was blushing, so… “Sure, why not?”

I looked out at the crowd of assembled Alps, all seated in a circle with me, and stood, as the others had. More accurately, my goopy, liquid body sort of ‘flowed’ into a new position, and I was so familiar with being humanoid that it looked like I was standing. Felt a bit like it too. I had this bizarre surface tension… I hadn’t shoved anything in through my skin yet, but I had a suspicion that…

Well, I was a sex monster. It was pretty likely that, as a type of Slime, I was essentially a giant freeform orifice.

I wasn’t really ready to get skullfucked yet, though.

“Hello, my name is Lyle, and I’m an Alp.”

“Hi Lyle,” the voices chorused. Nicole was the only one who sounded excited.

“I Alped a few days ago, but… it was the culmination of a long process, I think.” I trailed off. How detailed did I want to get? I guess it couldn’t hurt to do a brief summary of the past few weeks.

“It started when my best friend, Sally, came back from the dead. She was a Lich, and she gave me an ultimatum. Let me kill you, and raise you as a Mamono, as a Skeleton, or… start a harem with me.”

The room was quiet.

“It was… a pretty easy choice? I’d known Sally was pretty much only into women all along, but she’d always made an exception for me, while she was alive, anyway. I didn’t really have any interest in being turned into a Mamono, but I couldn’t bring myself to hurt her, either. I’ve loved her for nearly as long as I can remember.

“It wasn’t like I was helpless, I’d lucked into an Automaton maid, Beepatrice, early in life, and she could have handled Sally if I asked, probably, but… I just couldn’t do it. So, we set out into the forest, where I met Blackberry, a Bicorn who was sweeter than you could believe. After getting to know her a little, and stealing her first kiss, we wandered towards Morningwood, where Sally had already arranged housing for us.

“We met Amy along the way, a Holstaur so desperate to be loved despite her irregularities that she’d posted signs, and was sleeping in a cardboard box marked; “free, to a good home”. We convinced her to come along, and through some complicated circumstances, I ended up the host to a Shoggoth as well, who did a lot to keep me safe.

“Sally, now going by Faust, used her necklaces to switch my body with hers, and I got my first taste of what a Mamono could feel for her Husband… It was intoxicating. We didn’t go very far, but I never forgot how it felt. By the time I met Magenta, and started trying out her bespoken dreams…

“It was probably already inevitable, but Magenta didn’t help. Every dream was aimed at making me accept the idea of being a Mamono, one who took control of her man, one way or another. It was actually my idea to swap with Amy, and spend a little time as a Holstaur… I kinda want to do it again, honestly.

“Meanwhile, my Incubization was going poorly. I kept getting more and more distracted, mono-focused on sex, and near the end, I almost lost myself entirely. But a Mad Hatter I’d met and… uh… befriended, I guess? Helped pull me back to sanity. I owe a lot of things to Akubra, that is, er… Akubra is the Hatter. She’s completely mad, but she saved me from the same fate…

“Anyway, in the process of getting me back from the brink, I pushed through the last stages of Demonic Energy infection, and… Well, it turned out that Magenta had been training me, indoctrinating me, trying to turn me into a Demon, rather than leaving things up to chance. It… mostly worked, but the process was taken over by my Shoggoth, and… now we’re sort of the same thing? She’s not really here anymore… but I can still feel her with me. We’re one creature, like she always wanted. I can’t bring myself to feel sad about it, it just feels right.

“I guess that’s kind of it? I’m basically a Demon, but I can do slime stuff as a result… and I’m not really a very good Demon, honestly. We’re supposed to be conversion fanatics, but… I kinda have a different view on what that means, I guess?

“Honestly, I’m still trying to sort myself out. This is the first day I’ve left my bedroom… well, since it happened. Sometimes I think I’m really glad it happened, sometimes I want to cry… Sometimes I want to **pin some guy down and just make him love me and hold me forever and appreciate me and my wives and-**!”

Whoops. I started talking with the extra mouths again. When I get really passionate, my slime makes these extra mouths with sharp teeth to help amplify my words… or something, but the effect is really more ‘horrific’ than ‘convincing’.

That’s what I’m told, anyway.

I think the mouths are kinda cute.

The eyes, too.

“-and sometimes the thought makes me sick.” I finished, embarrassed.

I sat back down.

“Okay!” Nicole said, “That’s all we have time for today! See you next time, everyone.”

People couldn’t clear out fast enough.

Nicole, though, sidled over to me, moving one of the chairs closer.

“Don’t take it personally,” she said, “They’re just scared. We all were, once. I think it’s a great sign you can be that honest with yourself.”

“Yeah?” I realized I was crying. I guess… it hurt that even other Alps didn’t want to talk about this shit.

She put her hand on my shoulder, and offered me her wine bottle.

I accepted. Couldn’t get any more corrupted than I already was, right?

It was fruity, Prisoner Fruit, I thought. Peaches, too.

“Thanks,” I said, licking my lips. That she’d casually tried to addict me to Prisoner Fruit went unremarked. She was weeks too late on that front. I wonder if she even realized that’s what she’d done? I caught myself passing it out, sometimes, when I was grabbing my own to eat. I just… didn’t think about it.

She smiled back, “You’re welcome.”

She slid into my lap, pouring a little more into my mouth, then some into her own.

My demonic, spade-like tail traced up her spine, light touches enticing her.

We stayed like that for a while, teetering on the edge of sex, just enjoying being around someone who knew what it was like, and didn’t judge. It wasn’t anything special, or serious. We were just… Mamono. This was what we were.

I kinda loved it.

.o0o.

Home was just a short walk away, near the center of town. Faust, the woman I’d known as Sally since were children had, apparently, unbeknownst to anyone, played a major role in the founding of Morningwood, one of the most successful Mamono settlements I’d ever heard of. It was the sort of thing that would have gotten her killed when we were still human, but here, in that same town, she was a celebrity, ‘the Human Founder’, and the home she was awarded for her role reflected that.

A beautifully constructed single story home, ornate amongst even the ornate, set apart from the other residences with a small fence, it was perhaps three times the size of my simple home back in the village.

There were several architectural artists arguing on the street side nearby. It seemed my home was one of the next buildings to be redone. In Morningwood, Mamono housing, and buildings in general, were usually only structural facades. The front door led to another, magical-created space, bound to the door, rather than leading inside the actual building, so it was common practice to tear down whole buildings and re-imagine them, since it didn’t affect the occupants. The town was essentially a lifesized diorama. Morningwood was, at its core, a city of artists.

Queen Twinkle Star, the ruler of Morningwood, was a type of Mamono that fed on art, rather than… the traditional fare, and the other founders were all serious artists themselves. Every Mamono that passionately pursued her artistic dreams was strengthening the Queen, and so the city. It was an elegant system. I hadn’t had a chance to meet the Queen yet, but that was changing later today. She was insisting both that I have that chance to meet her, and that Faust get out of the house.

The latter was a surprise, in that Faust had barely even fussed about it. Being a Lich, she was predisposed to spending large swaths of time ‘doing science’ in her lab/bedroom, but she’d basically been like that even before her transformation, back when she was still Sally Franks, rather than ‘Faust von Frankenstein’. A name which, in dramatic and serious situations, still sometimes nearly had me in tears laughing from the sheer… ‘Sally-ness’ of it when juxtaposed against the circumstances, but I’d made an effort to respect her choice. I still called her Sally sometimes, but I got the sense I was allowed to. There were only a few who were.

Anyway, she’d been like that all along, and while I could coax her out, there was often a sort of forlornness to her for a few minutes, I might be her favorite, but science was her first love. That Queen Twinkle Star could simply call her out without complaint said something about their relationship. Sure, seeing the Queen was rarer, and maybe that was enough to explain it, but I knew they’d been talking in secret practically all of Faust’s life. That I’d only just found out about it, while there were statues built here in Sally’s honor… It felt like a large part of her life I’d been shut out of. She’d had good reason to keep it secret, but… I was jealous.

Shaking my head, I opened the door, and walked inside the house. Going out on my own had been… a huge step. I’d been offered escort, but the truth was the city simply wasn’t dangerous to me anymore. I had to face that fact head on, so I’d declined.

That didn’t mean there wasn’t someone waiting for me to get back though, nor did it mean I wasn’t relieved to see them.

Our living room was essentially just a very large two-story space, designed to hold all the doorways to the other rooms. It was mostly square, though a little wider than it was deep, and filled with cloned furniture that Mamono artisans had designed to be both incredibly comfortable, and to fit the needs of non-humanoid Mamono.

Amy, one of my wives, and a Holstaur, a type of cow-like Mamono with bovine ears, horns, and legs, was making use of one of the couches, one which was extra fluffy so she wouldn’t hurt herself if she sat on her tail.

The furniture was masterfully made, incredibly comfy, always warm, and inviting.

I hated it.

I suppressed the urge to beg her to sit on me instead, to shift my body to cradle her exactly, to become a chair so lovely she’d never sit anywhere else, and forego these inferior-

Ahem.

“Lyle… How did it go?” She asked, gently. Her voice was deep, but she generally spoke almost at a whisper to compensate, to keep from stimulating her chest with the sheer presence of her voice, and now was no different.

“It went…” I said, trailing off, “Well, I’m still alive.”

“Uh…? At least that’s a star- *snerk*” Amy looked almost surprised as the snort overtook her.

“What?” I asked, spinning, around, trying to look at myself. “Is there something stuck in me again?”

I’d picked up bits of detritus off and on as I learned how to control my new body. It had things it liked to eat, and sometimes it didn’t ask me first.

“No, it’s just…” Amy said, smiling slightly, “I was just thinking how disappointed Faust must be that you can say that. That you’re still alive, I mean.”

Oh yeah. Heh.

“Yeah,” I put my arm behind my head. I felt my fingers and hair join where they touched. Still weird. “Well, I’m sure she’ll figure out a way to kill me sooner or later. She’s not one to give up just because she got handed almost everything she wanted.”

We shared a smile at the thought, and I sat down on the stupid, useless, one-trick couch with her, laying my head in her lap.

“No one really wanted to talk,” I said, after a moment of settling in just right. “Honestly, I think I drove them away.”

“Lyle…” She was stroking my hair. It was an effort to stay solid enough for her to do so, being here with her was so relaxing, I just wanted to collapse into a sexy little puddle, tangle myself up in her furry legs, get all the dirt and grime out that a shower never really cleaned away. Maybe even get in between her hoof and… uh… the fleshy bit? The frog? I bet there was all sorts of stuff trapped up in there. Cleaning it out sounded wonderful right now.

Ugh, I really need to stop fantasizing about eating people’s dead skin and stuff. It’s gross. Even if it’s really kinda intimate and it’s not like it hurts anybody and I can keep them that clean so they don’t have to worry and aaaaaaaaaaa!

No no no.

“I’m sorry,” I said, “did you say something? I missed it.”

“I asked if it was really that bad?” She said, lightly brushing against my stomach with her other hand, as she continued to comb her fingers through my hair.

I smiled up at her, wryly. “Unfortunately.” I let out a sigh. “I’m pretty much directly responsible for convincing one of them to embrace being a monster. She was halfway there, a Holstaur, and I tried to bond with her a bit over the time I spent in your body, but…”

“But…?” Amy prodded, lightly.

“But I really just convinced her to give into the mooing and she fell all over herself to masturbate the last of her resistance away, if what we could hear as she tried to leave was any indicator.”

“Oh.”

“Pretty bad, right?”

“Well,” she hedged, “It isn’t… it’s not a great start, no.”

“I also told them about Faust.”

“Ah. I guess you’d have to, wouldn’t you?”

“Yeah. I sort of forget sometimes how she looks when you haven’t had years to get used to her and understand the nuance.”

“Well… That’s-”

“Also, I think I might be teacher’s pet?”

Amy just sighed.

“And given she seems to be on the ‘submit and fuck a dude’ side of things, I’m really not sure how to feel about that…?”

Amy was silent for a minute. I felt very judged.

“Well, Lyle… I still love you, even if they all decide differently. You’re mine, and I’m yours, and they can’t change that.”

“Yeah, that… that helps.” I cuddled into her a little more, closing my eyes. It was a really nice sentiment, and I’d had something of a rough day. I was laying on my back, now, and I think my neck had deformed somewhat to make the position possible. I could feel myself pooling in her fur a little.

I laid there, eyes closed, just enjoying it. Amy was a habitual runner, and there were all sorts of things caught in her windswept fur as she sprinted through the city, the surrounding fields, and even the nearby forest, on occasion. Besides her sweat, and stray splashes of milk here and there, I recognized a fair bit of it as plant matter, of various strokes. …I was pretty sure I like the taste of the pine trees the best, but I hadn’t worked up the nerve to ask her to bring home some needles for me to try, so that I could confirm it. I wasn’t sure how to explain what I was doing to anybody without making them deeply uncomfortable.

Around the time I was starting to consider broaching the subject so that I could move away from the area I’d already cleaned, I heard footsteps, picking up pace, nearly a run. There were actually only two people with traditional feet in this house, and I had trouble imagining Akubra running for any reason ever, so the name was no surprise to me when Amy spoke, confused.

“Faust, what are you-?”

It was, however, a surprise to me when I spoke.

“Ooof!”

I opened my eyes to find that Faust had leapt atop of me, which explained the crushing sensation I was feeling across my stomach. I didn’t keep anything important in there anymore, but it was still a shock.

“Lyle, darling.” The look on her face made my heart flutter. Or it would have, anyway. She’d perked up considerably in these past few days. Once the initial shock of my transformation had worn off, she’d taken to the situation by far the best. Not because the others were being difficult, or even seemed too troubled, but because…

Well…

“Hi Faust.” I said, “Are we almost ready to go?”

“Go? Go where?” She leaned down, cuddling up against me. Her face was pressed into my chest, my breasts, really. Voice muffled, she continued. “There is nowhere on this planet more enticing than the here and now, my love. I am home.”

I love her dearly, but I think she might be something of a pervert.

I looked up at Amy, for sympathy, but that was my mistake. She was blushing up a storm, and looked vaguely jealous. I reached up with one hand, letting it settle on her chest so she didn’t feel left out.

“Aren’t we going to see the queen?” I asked.

“Ugh,” Faust groaned. The rumbling was quite pleasant at the moment, head all but sandwiched into my chest. She might be a little harder to understand with her voice muffled like this, but… I think I can handle it. She continued, “I suppose we must. You will allow me to sit on your lap, of course.”

Finally, someone wants to use me as a chair!

…Er, I mean.

“Maybe…” I hedged, doing my best not to sound utterly enthralled with the idea.

She peeled herself up and away from me, the slight distaste for our parting that I felt also echoed on her face. That soothed things, a little. I, in turn, carefully flowed up off of Amy, and we were off.

.o0o.

Queen Twinkle Star was… well, she was a vision. A vision of precisely _what_ , I wasn’t entirely sure. ...There had been a kid in town while I was growing up, his name was Carl. Carl was intensely annoying, in that he had to be the center of attention at all times, and he had to be the best at everything. He’d shout, scream, cheat, lie, he’d do anything to achieve that goal. Queen Twinkle Star was like… if he could have done all that silently, just by appearance alone.

Also if it were somehow enchanting, instead of obnoxious.

Her hair, shoulder length, was wet, liquid like paint, and there wasn’t a color I could imagine missing from it, each flowing fluidly into the other, blending and covering every hue I’d ever seen, and more that I was seeing for the first time, here and now. Moreover, it looked like there were pieces of her hair _missing_ , or translucent, and I couldn’t help but think it was a failing of my eyes to see those colors, rather than her hair to hold them. The colors started out darkest black, at the top of her head, and grew brighter and brighter until the tips of her hair were purest white.

Her skin was like glass, her musculature too, and even her bones, such that light filtered through her, and so she refracted it differently from any angle you saw her, and depending on precisely when, as well. She was covered in a garden of flowers and vines, every color and shape, winding around her body and adding complexity to the colors she shone as the light hit.

I’d seen the galaxy at night, once, through a telescope a traveling astronomer had let me try. Her body was like that, containing the stars and swirls of heaven, and shifting as she moved.

Her dresses were famous for holding the homes of her personal court, the other fairies in town, and the intricately layered piece she wore today was no exception, hundreds of tiny women bobbing to and fro as they left and arrived at their home within the folds of the Queen’s clothes, her pockets like the doors to the places other Mamono resided. Each one moved hurriedly, confidently, like they had a mission or purpose, and the resulting flurry of activity was more than enough to distract by itself. The dress was pale yellow today, and I noted that it matched the flags and banners I’d seen around the city, replaced each day with a new design. Was that coordinated too? Of course it was.

Her crown was a scale model of the city itself, and it floated an inch or two above her head, rotating in place, so that all could see it was enchanted to reflect the hustle and bustle of the city in real time.

Her eyes… made me feel things. Things I can’t remember, or describe, but things I wanted to feel again. I knew then why it was artists made her their subject so often. She was unportrayable. Painters would lose her intricate textures, weavers, fail to catch her light, sculptors, miss her motion in the stillness of their medium, and bards, poets, and writers could never hope to capture her with only word and rhythm.

She was art in motion.

But… but every attempt to portray her regardless would only improve the artist’s skill, and the more skillful the depiction, the more powerful she became as she fed on it, the more beautiful, the more complex. It was a vicious cycle of life rising to evade art, and art chasing to capture life, each time making the city slightly safer.

And it happened hundreds of times a day. Had been happening for years.

Lord, such beauty. I tore my eyes away. I was crying.

A tiny fairy flew up and pat-patted my cheek as she dried my tears, before flying away. Must happen a lot.

“It’s okay, Lyle. May I call you Lyle?” Lord, even her voice. It was like… a town full of bards, all well practiced, all in sync, and against all odds, all women, had come together to speak for her.

“Are you alright, Lyle, darling? Twinkle, what is wrong with her?” Faust demanded.

“She’s an Alp, you said, yes?” The voices chorused. I could hear them in my body, in my skull, like my life was singing with her. “They take to the demonic energy poorly at first, and I am a nexus of it. Where you swim naturally through the waves my presence creates, she is tossed about amongst them, left adrift in my presence. Mamono naturally follow those more closely attuned to the Demon Lord, to some small extent, but those instincts are foreign to her, and her mind is rejecting them. She sees me instead as a human man might, but her body does not react as theirs would. Disorienting on the most basic level.”

“She will adjust, then?” Faust demanded again, as she rubbed my back. I felt a little sick, but the throne room was coming back into focus now that I was looking away from the Queen again. Everything had gotten… blurry. I remembered a similar effect back when I first slept with Beeps, I’d seen it a couple times since, as well. This was much more intense than that, and had overcome me so completely I don’t… I don’t actually remember much since entering the castle.

“She will.” I saw her nod, at the edge of my vision. I could handle seeing her if I didn’t look directly. “She is as beautiful as you had said. Much as you yourself did, she has made a canvass of herself, devoted to you, remade herself to fit your vision. What deeper expression of devotion could there be? Art is an expression of emotion, and she is an exemplar.”

The throne room itself was about what I expected, very fancy carpeting, very fancy everything, again complementing the Queen’s gown. I felt a little guilt because I didn’t really have the head to appreciate what I was sure was exquisite interior decorating. I wonder how much of the palace is changed every morning? Is any of it ever the same?

That would get pretty confusing actually.

“You… uh, you called us here for a reason, right?” I asked. My voice sounded kind of dazed, even to my ears.

Her laughter leapt out of her, abruptly, an asymphonic cacophony of bells. Were her vocal chords _actual_ glass? The tittering of her entourage was nearly as loud.

“Ah, forgive me, Lyle, I should be more aware of your condition. But… it is not every day one implies a Queen ought to ‘get on with it’.”

Uh… Whoops.

“In fact, we are to head to the arena shortly. My palanquin ought to be arriving any moment.”

“Arena?” Faust asked, before I could ask myself.

I settled for, “Palanquin?” I wanted to sound interested.

“Yes, I’ve prepared some entertainment I believe you will enjoy.” She said, presumably to Faust. “I had an old friend of yours tracked down at great expense, a fearsome warrior. I am hoping she will earn her freedom, and join your household.”

I wracked my brain. Unless there was another Mamono hiding unseen in Faust’s past, admittedly not impossible with two already revealed, but unless it was that instead… There was really only one person it could be.

“Charlotte?” Faust breathed, faintly.

The Queen must have smiled, I could tell, because the room grew noticeably brighter.

“Perhaps.”

Charlotte had been… an older girl in the village. She’d been often tasked with keeping an eye on us when we were kids, because Faust, then Sally, had idolized her, and we often wound up ‘accidentally’ separated from the others our age. Charlotte had sparred with Beepatrice every morning, training to be a knight, and knowing what I did now, I think the main reason Sally liked her was that she got to (try to) beat up Beeps regularly, and made progress until she’d finally left the town for Chalté, the capital city nearby.

She’d been picked up by a Valkyrie named Samael, if I recall correctly, and she’d reached Hero status years ago. Her birthday was a minor holiday in the region, especially in town. It was a shock to hear she’d been captured, I wasn’t sure I liked that, but my heart warmed a little at the look of longing on Faust’s face.

“H-how? She was so well protected… I’d resigned myself to years of building my power before I could seek her out. How did you find her?”

“Her companion, Samael, was subjected to a campaign of temptation, and has fallen to our Lord. She is now a Dark Valkyrie, and with her help, it was much simpler.”

The difference between the resources of a person, and a city-state, I guess. Casually causing angels to fall was more than a little outside my reach, if it was even a place I wanted to reach at all.

“We must hurry!” Faust shouted, she was vibrating in place. “It has been so long! Lyle, Lyle, look at my hair, is it curled properly?”

I smiled at her, kissing her cheek.

“You’re gorgeous.” She blushed, as I ran my fingers through her hair. “You’re going to… to terrify her.”

Her eyes sparkled, and I knew I’d nailed that one.

“Oooh, I hope so! She’s a proper hero, Lyle! To come from the shadows of her past, wreathed in darkness, and finally spirit her away to the underworld~” She shuddered, “How romantic!”

Uh huh.

I felt the attention of Queen Twinkle Star leave us for a moment, like a curtain being lowered across a stage, and she said; “Ah, here it is now, come, we must meet with the rest of your party. They have already been situated.”

I still wasn't sure what a palanquin was, though.

.o0o.

It turned out a palanquin was sort of like a piggyback ride for the rich, except you’re carried by multiple people, covered by fabric, and there’s a chair with handles involved. So… not much like a piggyback ride after all, honestly.

“Lyle, Lyle! Over here!” Blackberry called out, from the guest seats next to the throne, which presumably overlooked the arena. We were still walking down the hall towards it, but that didn’t seem like a huge reach.

Walking next to someone being carried by a small army of her husbands was a little… odd. We’d actually been invited up, the palanquin sat three or four, but I’d refused as politely as I could. The cushions for the seats were more of her husbands. She lived a lavish life, but I wasn’t ready to indulge that way yet, and Faust wasn’t about to leave me to walk alone. She was too distracted to feel hungry anyway, so I’m not sure she noticed.

I noticed. Lord, did I notice.

“Hey, Blackberry!” I called, eager to distract myself. She was kneeling, and as she was a Bicorn, she had to turn kind of awkwardly to see us coming down the hall from behind her. At least here the buildings were largely designed to accommodate her. I’d heard stories about retrofitted human settlements, and how unfriendly they were to quadrupeds.

As we closed distance, I noticed Amy peek around the corner, vaguely nervous looking, even from this far away.

“L-lyle,” She whispered, though her deep voice carried, especially echoing down the hall like this, “The arena is _full_. That has to be a third of the city out there, and they’re all looking up here!”

Oh. Right, the Queen was like… a Queen. Like for real, she was. I hadn’t really considered what that meant.

Queen Twinkle Star replied in my stead, “They will shift their focus onto the arena as the entertainment begins, Fair Lady Amy. Please do not worry.”

Her face flushed bright red as she took in the Queen being carried alongside us. I think she’d been pretending she wasn’t there. I saw her mouth “Fair Lady Amy? Fair Lady!?” as she slowly slid out of the doorway and back toward her seat. She was holding her head like she wasn’t sure what was real.

She’d come a long way in a few days, it was hard to blame her, I guess. From outcast living in a cardboard box, to personal guest of the Queen. I’d come nearly as far, but it wasn’t like I was handling things much better. I literally couldn’t stand looking directly at the Queen, after all.

I noted Akubra wasn’t present, she had a tendency to show up and disappear at her leisure, and something like this didn’t seem very much like her thing. It didn’t shock me she’d made herself scarce when no one was looking. Possibly literally.

As for Beeps, the last of my wives… sister-wives? Is there a different term for being part of a group of mutual wives? Ugh. I’d ask Faust later.

As for Beeps, she was standing still, looking out over the arena, it was hard to tell, but I thought she might be nervous.

“Beeps?” I asked, as we closed in on the doorway ourselves.

She didn’t look back, but I heard her say, “Charlotte.”

Ah. I wonder how she knew?

“She’ll be okay, Beeps; we just have to believe.”

She nodded, as we crossed the threshold.

Suddenly and without fanfare, our footsteps were the loudest things for what felt like miles. As soon as Queen Twinkle Star came into view, the entire stadium went silent.

I started to sweat.

Maybe Amy had the right idea? I should try cowering, it seemed like it could be fun.

Before I could, the Queen spoke; “Revelers, Degenerates, and Floozies!” A cheer. “Lurkers, Hunters, and Tricksters!” Another cheer. “Artists are you all this day, a collage of Mamonodom! A finer crowd of heathens I could not hope to find!”

The cheers were getting louder. “Are you kept warm!?”

“Yes!” My ears rang.

“Are you kept safe!?”

“Yes!” I felt unsteady.

“Most importantly; ARE YOU _WELL FED_!?”

“YEEEES!” The stadium shook.

“Then show us your passion! We are Queen Twinkle Star of Morningwood! Who is your Queen!?”

“Aurora Whorealis! Aurora Whorealis! AURORA WHOREALIS!” The cheers rose throughout the stadium, and with them came an undeniable energy, the air was laden with it, foggy at first, but by the time it reached us, it was so thickly black I’d lost sight of the crowd entirely.

It washed over us, largely flowing into her, but the edges of it brushed against me, and I came unglued entirely, screaming in ecstasy, flowing all across Faust, who’d merely happened to be closest when it hit. I writhed against her touching and kissing, but then stood slowly after a moment, slipping off of Faust, leaving a kiss on her cheek as I did. Not purposefully, although I wasn’t opposed to it, exactly. The air was filled with such a sensual bent, though, that it happened essentially automatically. Luckily, it had been Faust and not Twinkle Star herself, that could have been… a bit awkward.

I flopped gracelessly over to the seat that was still open, that is, the one not directly next to the Queen, as I assumed that one was for Faust, as the guest of honor. If she got tribute like that all the time, just how powerful was she? I’d assumed Faust was a powerful Mamono, and surely, she was, but Twinkle Star was on another level entirely. I wasn’t sure she didn’t count as a god, if the crumbs from her impromptu snack were enough to knock me on my ass like that.

She continued; “We have brought you the ‘Human Founder’ herself, Sally Franks!” She gestured lightly, and Faust moved forward alongside her, facing the crowd. I wasn’t sure how she’d take something like this, actually. She wasn’t… a people person, exactly, to put it politely. I needn’t have worried, though.

As Twinkle Star continued, I saw Sally straighten, pridefully. It wasn’t an exaggeration to call this her kingdom too, really. She’d had equal stake to Twinkle Star, in the beginning, and the other founders even, had come afterwards. I was starting to realize, these were her people, as much as they were Twinkle Star’s, and I think I was miles behind her on that front.

“Behold, Morningwood, we present you... Faust von Frankenstein!” Sally, seemingly in her element, flared her own power as she was announced, her head catching flame, the fire a roiling purple. Her skull was roughly outlined in the flames, and the energy radiated from her back as well, ghastly wings roughly formed from the same aura. She spread her arms wide, as the crowd cheered for her homecoming.

As the cheers died down, slowly, she let her aura fade, and stepped back, coming to sit beside me, and grabbing for my hand. She was shaking, but it was barely perceptible if you were looking at her.

I leaned down, desperately trying to think of a way to calm her as I opened my mouth to speak. I was coming up blank, but it was too late, my mouth was already open.

“You have a cute butt. I might have missed what the Queen said though. Where are we, anyway?”

She scoffed, and punched me lightly on the shoulder, but she’d stopped shaking.

“You are an idiot, and I do not understand what I see in you, nor why I love you so.”

“I love you too,” I whispered.

“Oh? And are you also at a loss for the reason, then?” She whispered, in response, managing to still sound slightly haughty as she did.

“No,” I whispered back, from the corner of my mouth, “it’s your butt. I just told you.”

She let out an indignant squawk, and in the silence between the Queen’s words, it echoed across the entire arena.

There was a pregnant pause, as the Queen presumably fought the urge to turn back to us to see what had happened, and Faust turned bright red.

I did my best to contain my snickering, because I, at least, was capable of being a dignified guest of the Queen.

Queen Twinkle Star continued her speech, and I took the opportunity, as Faust studiously ignored me, to turn to Amy on my other side. She still seemed nervous, so I wrapped my arm around her, and let my hand come to rest on her breast. She calmed immediately, as her body responded to my touch. She leaned into me a little, murmuring thanks into my ear.

“And now, without further ado, open the gates! Release our poor, poor Hero, Charlotte, and release her opponent, Thagolynn, the Dragon Warrior!”

...WHAT!?

.o0o.

Charlotte hadn't changed much since I'd seen her last, and I was surprised by how well I could see her from this far away. As the gates went up and the cheers, and jeers, started to rise, she rolled her shoulders once, as I'd seen her do many times at the start of a fight.

Ogres had changed a lot since the current Demon Lord took power, but Charlotte was built like the ogres of old. Enormously large for a human woman, at about six foot two, she had broad shoulders and hips, and was covered every inch in muscle. She wasn't ugly, exactly, but her bone structure was better suited to taking a punch than posing for a painting. She was a solid brick house in a city literally filled with empty facades. She had hazel eyes, a button nose, and usually had at least a slight smile on her face, to try and offset her presence, but here and now she was all but snarling, menace etched into her stance like she honestly thought the Dragon ought to be afraid of her. She had wavy red hair that was shaved short at the moment, shorter than even Beeps kept hers, which given that she was in an arena to fight monsters for her freedom, made more than a little sense.

She had a collar on, one I recognized as an emergency energy sink the Order elites and prominent Heroes might use when caught or surrounded. It wouldn't come off unless a priest either blessed it with the Chief God's light, or it was overwhelmed by the energy it was designed to filter out. She also seemed to be wearing clothes that had been provided for her, because she was showing more skin than was probably wise, given her position. It looked like she'd made do, though, she seemed to be wearing armor made from leather undergarments, bras mostly, as a kind of very large scale mail. It wasn't a lot, she was still only partially covered, and it wouldn't do much against the dragon, but it did sort of serve to give her her dignity back, which was impressive, when her clothing options had probably been presented to her to take that away from her instead.

I took all this in as I desperately clawed at the air, held back from leaping down to try and do something to help only by Faust's telekinetic grip.

“Faust, let me go! She's going to fight a Dragon! A _Dragon_! She can't do that! She'll get hurt!”

The roars and cheers of the crowd muffled my voice, but not so much I could believe that Faust hadn't heard me.

I was plopped back on the seat, and once I had traction again I immediately flowed out of it to try and get off the balcony again, taking the time to form some eyes and a mouth to glare at her from the back of my head as I flailed helplessly, once again caught before I could do anything.

“Lyle, Lyle _settle down_. She is not in serious danger, look closely at her spear.” Faust said, as she tried to pet and pat me, calm me down. “Look, Lyle, _look_.”

Blackberry was on her hooves, shuffling them awkwardly and nervously looking between the two of us, while Amy had moved to stand between me and the balcony. Beeps, on the other hand, appeared at first to be idle, but her guns had slowly left their compartments on her wrists, and her body was angled ever-so-slightly towards Faust, and more disconcertingly, the Queen. Noticing that broke through my panic, and I went limp in the air, crossing my arms and essentially… started pouting.

I couldn't let Beeps attack someone like the Queen in front of a third of her subjects, just because I lost control of myself. I couldn't do that to Amy, either, or to Blackberry. I sighed, then took in a deep breath for a moment, the action serving to focus me, even if I no longer really had lungs, and... I looked closer.

There _was_ something kinda odd about it, the blade shimmered or writhed or pulsed with... something.

“What _is_ that? That's not steel.” I asked, curious, but still waiting to leap back into it if I didn't like the answer. Even if Faust brought her back later, I wasn't keen to watch Charlotte get slaughtered. There was a difference between cautiously indulging Faust's odd ideas about romance, and casually letting a friend get squished or even eaten, just because I’d married a necromancer.

“It's Soulsilver,” Faust answered, gently. “She'll be fine, Lyle, please sit.”

“Oh.” I said, embarrassed. “I'm sorry I… I should have known that.”

Soulsilver, or Demon Realm Silver, was an intensely enchantable metal, only minable in the Demon Realms. Surprisingly, it actually wasn't inherently corruptive, and when it was forged into a weapon, the most common use, it produced a blade that cut at your energy, your resolve. Rumor had it that the army... uh… the human army, would train their best fighters with it, to allow them to go all out without fear. In the human lands, though, it was generally pretty rare. It was sometimes made into jewelry and such, but it wasn't practical for humans to try to mine it, and so most of it was obtained via trade with nations that had different relationships with their Mamono.

It also had a tendency to be... Cursed. You could flood it with demonic energy quite easily, and that energy would transfer into the ‘wound’ with every strike of a weapon, or all at once into the wearer of a necklace, or what have you. Heh. Given the way women tended to change when successfully cursed, you might even call it a _booby trap_. Hehehe.

Uh. Why do I think that’s so funny? It’s not. Right?

 **Anyway** …

I looked around, blushing. “I… uh, I should have trusted you girls instead of freaking out.”

Faust just nodded once, primly, and that was that. I settled back into my seat, and the others did the same, Amy putting one hand on my thigh, trying to keep me calm, probably. Blackberry actually knelt at my feet, sort of, my legs bumping up against her barrel, her body heat pouring out like a nice campfire on a cold night. I was grateful for the comfort.

I… for a minute there, I'd been human again, felt surrounded by monsters I was sure were out to hurt people I cared about. True, back when I’d been Sheriff, Beeps and I had needed to react to incursions, instinctually, without hesitation... but that was an excuse, not a justification. I had first hand experience with how much of the Order's teachings were baseless propaganda, and although admittedly some of it had turned out to be true, this was something I should have immediately recognized as the former over the latter.

There was another thing to consider, though.

“Isn’t that kind of… unfair?” I asked, not directing the question at anyone in particular. “I mean, she’s fighting a Dragon with a weapon that _specifically_ only inflicts spiritual damage. She can’t even hurt her.”

Even a powerful Hero didn’t have spirit levels equal to a Dragon’s. There were few monsters stronger, and they were traditionally the work of a party, if they were successfully fought off at all. When you had to rely on tiring her, before you tired yourself, and you were on your own…

“Mmm. The story of an underdog is much more entertaining, is it not?” The Queen replied, airily, though her gaze never left the stadium.

I went to reply, but down in the arena, Charlotte seemed to be getting the lay of the land. There were several uneven, raised areas, like artificial cliffs and hills, rather than a flat plane.

Thagolynn, on the other hand, looked like she’d been here before, or else was so supremely confident she didn’t need to take in her surroundings. Her scales were a deep, dark blue, and she had four horns on her head, poking up out of her black hair. Like most dragons, she was huge, though not inhumanly so, and she was actually naked, which made some sense. Armor wouldn’t protect her from Soulsilver, and Dragons had skin and scales naturally tough enough she didn’t exactly have to be wary of any tricks, either. Maximizing her sex appeal was the best move she could make, if she managed to get Charlotte… distracted, then it was all but over.

She wasn’t using her wings yet, but she had a rather large sword, it looked custom. It too seemed to be made from Soulsilver, though it was clear to my eyes it was stuffed full of demonic energy. How much could Charlotte's collar take? Probably not all of that plus what they… what _we_ were all giving off. They weren’t built to show their capacity in any way, to prevent Mamono from focusing down the more vulnerable, but they weren’t intended to be used casually, either. Each one was custom made, and when a priest removed it was destroyed in the process, regardless of how much demonic energy it had absorbed.

She moved surprisingly quietly, for a Dragon anyway, but Charlotte seemed to hear her all the same. I had no idea what the ‘true power of a Hero’, for lack of a better term, looked like, but I had to hope Charlotte was up to the task.

They were closing in on each other now, Charlotte keeping in close to the walls of the raised cliffs, probably to limit the advantage flying would give Thagolynn.

Charlotte finally caught sight of the Dragon, and a brief hush fell over the stadium, before the cheers erupted as both fighters **moved**.

.o0o.

And when they moved, they moved _fast_. I had to watch for a few moments before I really knew what I was seeing. Still, the opening moments told me a lot about how Thagolynn operated. She moved just as confidently as she had as she entered the field, striding brazenly towards Charlotte with a sort of swagger in the way she swayed her hips, somehow sauntering even at a dead run. It leaned more towards threatening than sensual, though, because her strut left footprints in what appeared to be solid stone. It was strange, as I focused, I could actually see the rock flaking as her feet pressed into it, see the small clouds of dust slowly rise. To say my eyesight had improved would be a gross understatement.

That was why I saw the brief hesitation in Thagolynn’s stance when, instead of retreating or steadying herself, Charlotte stepped forward, and at a faster pace. Even from here I could all but feel the moment of self-doubt enter the Dragon’s mind. She didn’t falter for long, though, and as they closed the distance, she took the first swing, throwing her entire weight behind her strike. I had time to watch as Charlotte brought her spear up to block the sword, the soulsilver tip the only material she had that could actually do so, and it was then I realized things seemed… slower.

Not slowed to a crawl, exactly, but when I’d used to watch Charlotte and Beeps fight, years ago, and their movements had been so quick I’d had trouble following them precisely, and I doubted Charlotte had somehow gotten slower when she became a hero, or that she wasn’t fighting seriously now. Despite that, I was following easily, with even enough time to anticipate what was going on. I was worried, though, a spear was hardly ideal to deflect with in the first place, and when the only surface that would even work was the comparatively tiny blade at the end...

But I realized I’d misjudged what Charlotte was trying to do only after I saw her do it. The first part I’d gotten right. As it glanced off the spearblade, the edge of Thagolynn’s sword wasn’t slowed by the shaft of Charlotte’s spear, but neither did it actually _cut_ the shaft, flowing through it like water, the properties of soulsilver not extending to the grip of the spear. Apparently, it seemed to be made of different materials, likely to ensure you didn’t drain your own spirit as you fought with the weapon.

The blow continued unhindered, and Charlotte ducked under the blade of the sword as it swung, passing through her spear like air, while the point of that spear grazed Thagolynn lightly across the nose, who, having committed so completely to her strike, failed to entirely pull her head back in time to totally avoid it.

First blood, sort of.

Of course, as that thought crossed my mind, and gasps echoed lightly in the stadium, the crowd having suddenly become much quieter, Thagolynn let out a growl, and went on the offensive. Her strikes were swift, but Charlotte seemed to barely be ahead of her every move, dodging and circling at just the right time to avoid contact with the enemy, while simultaneously scoring tiny, glancing hits of her own.

The dance continued, Thagolynn became more and more furious at her failure to carve into her prey, sometimes leaving glowing energetic lines in the landscape instead, on particularly bad misses.

The two were quick to move, Charlotte putting pieces of landscape between her and the Dragon, only for Thagolynn to destroy them outright as she tore straight through.

And then, out of nowhere, the Dragon let out a wild knee-kick, connecting solidly with Charlotte’s stomach.

Charlotte went _flying_.

Straight up.

Thagolynn, a vicious sneer on her face, wasted no time and took off into the air after her, all her confident swagger traded for fury and fire as she streaked off like a burning boulder from a trebuchet, with an impact that was just the same. The cheers went up as she struck again, bare handed, and Charlotte was flung straight back down towards the ground. Two solid hits like that had my grip tightening on Amy’s hand. With rigorous training, even humans could develop their personal energies to incredible heights, but taking a punch from a monster while you’re wearing armor is one thing, taking a hit from a Dragon while in rags was another.

But, to my surprise, Charlotte wasn’t done.

Midway to the ground, she seemed to recover, and she threw her spear upwards at a blur. It lanced up directly into Thagolynn’s stomach before she had a chance to react, knocking the air out of her before rebounding against her flesh and falling back downwards. Thagolynn struggled to breathe, scrabbling for the spear to deny Charlotte her weapon and end the fight in all but a few moments. But… between the impact, her wheezing, and her desperate clawing for the spear...

She’d dropped her sword.

And as Charlotte landed on the ground in a three point pose...

She caught it.

The crowd went nuts. As Thagolynn rushed down towards her, Charlotte leapt back up to meet her, and this time, _she_ swung the sword. She caught Thagolynn in a vicious uppercut, straight from her hips up through her chest and out the top of her head, and the dark energy intended to corrupt Charlotte bled into Thagolynn instead, drawing a throaty moan out of her as the spear fell from her hands.

Charlotte grabbed it in her off hand, guiding it back into the naked woman’s hands and towards her drooling snatch, and instinct did the rest, as Thagolynn shoved the soulsilver blade inside herself over and over, masturbating along the shaft of the spear. As they landed on the ground, the Dragon Warrior rolled onto her back, hips in the air, either not feeling or not caring as the spear cut away at her energies more and more as she sated herself.

But Charlotte wasn’t _quite_ finished.

She stood over her would-be opponent as the poor woman fought desperately for release, and Charlotte drove the sword down with finality into her gut. Immediately, a growling scream of sheerest joy ripped out of Thagolynn’s throat as her body’s thrusts into the spear now slid her torso along the blade of the sword as well, dumping more and more of the absurdly concentrated demonic power into her every time she helplessly bucked her hips.

Charlotte walked back towards the gate she’d entered through, and when it failed to rise for her, she simply tore it from the wall, tossing it carelessly aside, and walked calmly out of view.

Lord alive.

I am so horny for her right now.

I turned to Faust, her eyes glittering.

“I must have her, Lyle,” she said.

I found, despite myself, that I couldn’t help but nod.

.o0o.

The “Pit” under the arena wasn’t quite what I expected. I’d heard, and even read, many stories about heroes in arenas and dangerous wild lands, and those places always seemed to be dirty, dark, stone-hewn, and generally barbarous. More dungeon than anything else. That wasn’t the case here. It looked more like a fancy inn, honestly. There weren’t a lot of places I could compare it to, but that was a decent start. It did still sort of have that ‘dingy’ quality I was expecting, but in a way that felt almost purposeful.

The room was open, with about a third taken up by rough, wooden tables, and a bar that spanned the nearby wall. I’d been told that the fights here were a regular thing, amongst the more rambunctious Mamono, and I guess a place to unwind afterwards, or to boast about your fights sort of fit with that vision? It certainly wasn’t anywhere I’d be comfortable spending _my_ time, but I could see the appeal, I guess.

Along the far wall, opposite the bar, were several doors leading to private rooms, likely for that day’s fighters to prepare themselves in, if they needed the space. It was one of these that seemed to have been repurposed, a hand-carved sign which read; “Warning: Angry Heroine, flirt at your own risk” had been affixed above the doorway, and the walls had been made lightly translucent, so that you could vaguely see what was happening inside. I’d expected Charlotte to be in there, but there were two figures, each on opposite sides of the room.

That didn’t seem to track.

A Minotaur appeared to be guarding the door, but she took one look at us and couldn’t leave fast enough. I wasn’t sure what that was all about.

“Do you think that’s Samael in there?” I asked, not really expecting a conclusive response, per se.

“I should think so.” Faust replied. “These wards are quite ingenious. Incredibly powerful, but Charlotte could likely destroy them easily, given her earlier display. Yet the first ward to break, by far the most fragile, would be the one ensuring Samael, or whomever that may be, must keep their distance from her. So long as she does not damage them, she may sleep soundly, but attempt an escape…”

Huh. Clever.

“Are we really just going to walk in there?” That didn’t strike me as an amazing plan.

“That doesn’t sound like an amazing plan.” Amy chimed in, her eyes lingering on the Minotaur as she hurriedly departed. She was blushing, if barely. Did they know each other?

“No, I think not. Far too small a space. The hall has been cleared that we might have our reunion here, perhaps at one of the tables?” Faust explained, half musing as her whims solidified into a plan. “We are entrusted to ensure she does not escape, which ought to be simple, between the five of us.”

I looked at her, suspiciously. “You really think we can wrangle someone even a Dragon couldn’t handle?”

If she was nervous, she hid it well. “She shall pose us no threat. She will be ours within the hour, I am sure of it.” Her eyes swam in the way they did when she talked about the romance of my eventual murder at her hands, and I started to get a creeping suspicion there wasn’t a plan in her head guiding her actions so much as a very horny, very optimistic daydream.

I had the sense that this could go very wrong, very fast, but before I could voice it, the door opened with a wave of Faust’s hand.

Through the doorway, I got my first look at Samael, and it was quite a bit more of her than I’d expected to see.

She was leaning against the wall, seated on her bed with her legs slightly apart, and her bluish skin was exposed, she was entirely naked, much like Thagolynne had been, but for all that it was seductive, she made it seem so casual, too. She wasn’t paying any attention to herself, or where she was, she’d gotten herself comfortable, and now she only had eyes for one thing.

“-and the way you tore that gate straight off the walls, oh Charlotte, it made me so happy. Didn’t I always tell you it was that dramatic flair that separated a _heroine_ from mere military fodder?” Her hips wiggled suggestively as she said ‘heroine’, but it seemed largely unconscious. She lifted a large bottle she’d tucked between her legs up to her lips, and I noted that it appeared to be from the bar. She tilted it skyward, and a little dribbled down her cheek as she took it from her mouth with a satisfied; “Ah~...” sound, sliding it back between her legs again, tucking it tightly against herself, hiding her crotch from view once more.

“Oh!” She cried, “Every time I forget just how delightfully _cold_ it is.” Her nipples hardened in agreement, and I noticed her long, white hair was matted, slick with sweat, and wildly sticking to her body.

 _This_ was what an angel of combat, sent from above to train heroes of justice… _this_ was what that looked like?

...It was a bit different than I’d imagined it.

“Um… Is Charlotte in there?” Blackberry asked, piping up for the first time. “I’d… I’d like her to… to… _signmysaddle_!”

Samael turned and noticed us, finally. Her face was flushed, but not, I thought, from embarrassment. How much had she been drinking? I wanted to pin her down and show her how much fun proper hygiene can be and oh my lord no stop.

But before I could step forward and say something about the plates and cups left strewn about Samael’s side of the room, and before Faust could step forward to begin whatever machinations she’d plotted in her head, Charlotte filled the doorway, glaring at the lot of us.

“Leave me alone.” She growled, eyes sweeping over us with practiced ease. Then, she paused. “...Beeps?”

The Automaton stepped forward, gracefully. “Charlotte.” She cocked her head. "Proud."

“What are you doing here? You should be back in town, protecting…” Her eyes widened. “No.”

Her gaze swung back to Sally just as she drew herself up to her most… Faust.

“Behold, Charlotte! I am Faust von Frankenstein, co-ruler of this domain, and known to you once as Sally Franks!” Her body sparked off dark energies, as her head once more caught flame, a frightening visage that I’d quite gotten used to. “I have come… for your soul!”

Charlotte’s eyes narrowed, and she focused back onto me. “What have you done to her, you foul Demon? The Sally I knew was nothing like that… that _thing_!”

“Uh, actually,” I said, “you have it backwards, you see-”

And then her fist went through my head.

I collapsed, shocked, pooling on the floor. I felt as she carried through, stepping just barely on my edges as she adapted to the change in situation, and I pulled myself together, as quickly as I could manage. I was in a panic, she didn’t know it yet, but she’d done the one thing she absolutely shouldn’t have done, and I had to head it off before…

“Charlotte, you fiend!” Faust cried, “I shall have your-!”

Anything Faust was going to say was quickly blown away by a terrible sound, echoing from the body of my dearest deputy.

**"BWWWAAAAAAAMMMMM!**

**CHARLOTTE FRANCESCA ABERNATHY**

**BWWWAAAAAAAMMMMM!**

**YOU ARE UNDER ARREST**

**BWWWAAAAAAAMMMMM!**

**KNEEL AND SUBMIT**

**BWWWAAAAAAAMMMMM!**

**YOUR PUNISHMENT COMES"**

Uh oh.

.o0o.

“-and that’s when we came down to see you.” I said. It felt like so little, all laid out like that. It had only been a few weeks ago, not even a month, that I’d been living at home with Beeps, and only a little further back than that, Sally had been alive with us too, even if she’d already fallen ill. A lot had happened in such a short time, but the explanation had been so simple, boiled down.

I paused, looking at Charlotte, but of course she wasn’t exactly going to respond. Kneeling, her body immobile, covered thickly in Beeps’ spraystone, and gagged with some fabric when she wouldn’t stop interrupting, she wasn’t in a position to do much at all.

Circling behind her, I carefully removed the gag.

“So…” I said, trepidatiously, “are you willing to talk?”

She looked up at me, grumpily. _Cutely_ , a part of my mind whispered. She looked good all bound up in the gloppy mess, even if it had hardened to hold her. Something about that was just so… right. I resolved not to think about it too much. That was sure to be a winning strategy.

“Lyle. You’re an Alp?” She asked, flatly.

“Um… a little bit?”

She glowered at me. “A little bit?”

I shuffled my feet.

“Oh for Lilith's sake, Lyle,” Faust groaned. “Yes, Lyle is an Alp. Some mixture of Shoggoth and Demon I’m quite keen to study... to find its weaknesses.” The last part was said so quietly I almost missed it, but it drew a slight smile from me anyway.

“Okay.” She sighed, “So, assuming I believe all of this nonsense, why does it matter? You have me now, why bother explaining anything?”

Samael chimed in, “I still can’t believe after all that training you just gave up and got on your knees because the metal lady said so. You didn’t even hesitate. I’d be angry that I trained you better, if it weren’t so in my favor, Charly.”

Charlotte for her part, blushed when she looked over at Samael to respond, partly, I assume, because she was embarrassed about her ‘defeat’, and partly because Samael was seated on a table, legs spread wide and dangling off, angled to give Charlotte quite a show anytime she looked straight ahead.

“It… it was practically instinct. I’m ashamed myself, but… she... Beepatrice, she’s almost like my mother.” She looked away again, to avoid seeing Samael.

A sharp inhale. “That… that makes us sisters!” Blackberry all but shouted, rearing up in excitement. She trotted up lightly but insistently, pushing her way to the front of the group. I forgot sometimes she was the largest of us by far.

Charlotte didn’t seem to share her enthusiasm, though, merely sighing and ignoring her.

I bristled a little at that, but had to face the fact that it was probably the best reaction she could have gotten from Charlotte right now.

“I’m trying to give you a choice,” I said. “You deserve to choose, you just need to know what your choices actually look like, not what you’ve been _told_ they do.”

“ _Ly_ -le,” Faust groaned. “We wish to show her pleasures she cannot imagine. Literally cannot. She is incapable of making an informed choice, and once she has been made capable, she will choose correctly, as all do. Must we endure this rigamarole?”

I frowned. “It is _not_ ‘rigamarole’, Faust. She’s a person, we should treat her like one.”

She arched her eyebrow at me. “And, praytell, which ‘persons’ do you know at the moment that you are not either sleeping with or fantasizing about sleeping with?”

I spluttered. “That- that’s not, I mean it’s not like I-!”

I took a deep breath, and rallied myself. “Faust, this isn’t right, and you know it’s not. You’re more than sexy enough to seduce her properly. Are you saying you _can’t_?”

Now it was her turn to make incoherent noises, and I turned back to Charlotte, satisfied.

I just needed to convince her. I had to. I knew this was the right way. I’d made the right choice, we all had. She’d see that if we showed her.

“How long have you been an Alp, Lyle? A few days, right?” I nodded, and Charlotte continued, “Ugh… Probably haven’t gone completely insane yet. There’s a chance you’re telling the truth. Let’s make a deal.”

Making a deal sounded like an AMAZING idea.

“Okay!” I said, a little surprised at my own enthusiasm.

“You let me out of here, keep the other monsters off of me, and give me a place to stay for a day or so, and I’ll give your girls a chance. But… if one of them tries something, you let someone else get by you, or I'm not convinced, then after that, I go free, and you help me escape.”

“A day or two isn’t much time,” I argued, crossing my arms. “What if we agree not to push any demonic energy your way, and get you clean food, but you stay a week?”

She narrowed her eyes. “I’ll want my own room. With a lock.”

I nodded, “That’s fine, but you can’t hide out in it. You have to spend most of the time actually interacting with us, or there’s no point.”

She chewed her lip. “60/40. That’s enough time to sleep and have some privacy. Even if I have to spend time with you that’s better than I get here.”

I nodded again. “That sounds fair.”

“Deal?” she asked, a glint in her eye, she looked intense. I couldn’t really figure out why, though?

Faust’s eyes widened, and she shouted, “Wait!” just as I said;

“Deal.”

Red, orange, and yellow erupted between Charlotte and myself, spontaneous fire just within my reach, as a Demonic Contract burned its way into existence.

I knew instinctively I was bound to the terms, and so was she. I _had to_ shelter her, protect her, and help her escape in a week’s time, and in return, _she_ had to… give us a chance.

Uh.

Whoops.

.o0o.

Ugh... These damn underwear again? It was a good thing I was back in the safety of my bedroom. Being a Shoggoth, a sort of Slime-type monster, as well as a Demon, I had a fair amount of control over my look. Not enough to look masculine, exactly, and that wasn’t something I really aimed for anyway, but I could reshape myself without a lot of other limits, including my clothes. So why did I always end up wearing these same pink panties? I’d seen them on Faust, that is, an actual cloth version of them, years ago by accident, back when she was still Sally, and they’d gotten stuck in my memory, she hadn’t been wearing anything else, and that’d… made an impression, but they were too lacy, too revealing, too… risqué, frankly, for my tastes.

So why…?

I took them off and set them aside, seeing as I found myself incapable of shifting them away, and replaced them with my standard plain flesh tone ones. Well, my flesh tone, anyway. Deep bluish-purple was technically a flesh tone. And it was sorta risqué too, a bit? I kinda looked naked like this, that was sexy, right? Justifying it like that helped solidify the change. It was easier to hold the shape without thinking about it when the reason could be finagled into something vaguely sexual.

I looked at the underwear again. I couldn’t get the image of Sally wearing them out of my head. That was a memory I’d uh… spent a fair bit of time with over the years. Though lately I increasingly substituted her new form into old memories. Even childhood Sally had sharp teeth and light blue skin in my thoughts these days. It’d been too long since I’d seen her human, I guess. Should have had a picture done. Too late now.

That same memory slid back into my head _again_ , Faust, looking like she did now, wearing those lacy, frilly panties… Lord. I hadn’t had much sex lately. I’d lost control of myself a few times when my body grazed against something in the wrong spot, or happened to get a taste of someone else especially strongly, but I’d been trying to adjust to my new self and…

And I was really _really_ horny.

I was still a little afraid to indulge, though. I knew that what had swept me away before wasn’t really a factor anymore, although I’d fight anyone who said these girls and I weren’t married, but remembering that haze still made me pause.

I took a deep breath, cuddling into my bed. That was one advantage to keeping this stupid furniture around, I guess. Hard to cuddle into _yourself_ for comfort.

Focus, Lyle.

…This society couldn’t function if everyone was a braindead fuck-junkie. You’re afraid of something that isn’t real, Lyle. It’s propaganda. It couldn’t even function if roughly half were drooling empty-headed sex slaves, and the other half had to care for and dote on them. You were an outlier, brought on by a bad situation, and over-reaching.

I shuddered, let the breath out, and inhaled again. I didn’t need to breathe, but focusing on that now was the opposite of helpful. Blackberry is fine, happy, and lives a full life. She’s not an animal. Amy is fine, happy, and lives a full life. _She’s_ not an animal. Faust is fine, happy, and live a full life. …A weird life, but a full one. Actually… Okay, she’s dead, bad example. She, uh, dies a full death, though…?

Look, the point is, Lyle… uh I mean, me… er, self? …Lyle. The point is, you can be fine, happy, and live a full life too. _You_ aren’t an animal, either.

I let out the second breath.

“A-amy!?” I called, and my voice wavered, “Can you come in here?”

I heard her hooves clop-clopping across the floor, and she gently opened the door, sliding in before shutting it behind her.

“Lyle? Where-?” She said. “Oh, oh honey…”

I was shaking. Dammit.

I felt as her weight shifted the mattress, crawling across the large bed to reach me where I was curled up near the headboard. I opened an eye to look at her, not really knowing when I’d closed them.

“H-hey…” I choked out, a frail smile forcing its way onto my face.

Instead of responding, she finished closing the distance, lying parallel to me on the bed, eyes level with mine. She smiled at me, a small, warm expression, rather than a joyful one, and slowly reached her hand out to touch me.

I flinched.

“I’m sorry,” I said, immediately, “I didn’t mean-“

“Shhhh, Lyle, It’s okay,” she said, her smile not wavering as her hand withdrew, “talk to me?”

I nodded, taking a couple of breaths. She smelled nice, I loved her and it was silly to be afraid.

“I’m scared,” I said, to start.

She nodded, waiting patiently.

“I’m scared of… myself. Of not being myself. Of losing myself like I did before. I know it won’t happen again, but what if it _does_? I just… it feels wrong. My head feels wrong, like I’m… scrabbling to hold onto something I never wanted in the first place but I can’t **let go** because it’s _all I know_. I wish…”

I paused, trailing off, searching for what I meant in the sea of overwhelming words and phrases that all felt too trite to really capture it, as if words could never mean the things we felt for real, but we’d all agreed to pretend and now I couldn’t anymore.

“It’s okay, take your time,” she said. “I know how it feels. I-I remember it too. The... the fear.”

I looked at her, curiously. “Yeah?”

She nodded. “I told you before that I was born human, right?” It was my turn to nod. Her voice was soft, gentle. It usually was, but this was almost a whisper. “I… didn’t tell you I was one of the last to turn. One of the Mamono radicals tainted our milk supply with Extra Thick Holstaur milk. It starts to turn you instantly, women into Holstaurus, men into Incubi especially suited to them.”

I started to uncurl myself, she needed me to listen to this.

“I was at the general store buying something last minute for breakfast for the family. I don’t even remember what it was. Small farming towns like that, they run like clockwork, and by the time I was walking back, almost everyone else in town had had a sip. I ran to my house, desperate to warn my family, knowing deep down it was too late already but refusing to believe it. In the end, my own mother pinned me down and made me drink.”

I leaned into her, nuzzling at her neck.

She laughed a little at my display. “It’s okay, it doesn’t bother me now. I struggled and I fought, I was terrified, but… for me it was over quick, and I thanked them for it only shortly after. I know how that sounds, but it’s true. I’ve thought about it a lot since that day, and I think it boils down to this. Maybe… maybe it got inside my head, drove me mad, and made me unable to dislike what had happened… or maybe they were _right_.”

She paused. “Maybe it really was _that good_ , that I only had to try it to be completely convinced, that all the terror was for nothing. Maybe it’s not sinister at all, and it’s just _that much better_ than everything else. Maybe it’s a mix. Maybe there’s not any meaningful difference between the two. All I know is, I’d have reacted the same either way, so it doesn’t really matter which it was, which it _is_. Not to me. I’d be happy to help someone else the same way, if it came to that.”

She wrapped her arms around me. It felt so nice.

“But I never forgot that fear. It was horrible. A dark blemish on an otherwise happy memory, tainting it forever. I know how you’re feeling, Lyle. It gets better.”

I kissed her neck. “Thank you.”

She rubbed her cheek against the top of my head, her horn scraping mine, sending a thrill through me that brought me back to my own predicament.

“I just- I wish it could be like that for me. I wish it was over, that the fear was gone. I know what I want, what my body is screaming for, but I keep flinching away. I want to be brave, I want to be strong, but I wish I didn’t _have to_. Why do I have to be different? Why couldn’t I have been…? Why can’t it be easy?”

“I don’t know, sweetie,” she said, holding me tight, “I don’t know. I’m here, though. I’m here for you. I love you, and I’ll love you whatever happens.”

“Thanks, Amy, that means everything,” I mumbled into her shoulder. “I’m… I’m just… I’m really really horny.”

“I know, babe, I can, uh… smell you. I have a pretty good nose. Also, you’re matting my fur a little.” So I was. A _little_ might honestly be an understatement. “Are you still scared?”

“Yeah. A lot. But… I want to do this, I need to. I don’t want to keep putting it off, waiting until I lose control of myself and just… going on instinct.”

“Mmmm…” she nodded. “We’ll have to be quiet, unless we want to scare Charlotte.”

I rocked my hips. “Yeah… I’m worried about that too. But we can talk about it later.”

I met her eyes, and I saw that same hunger in her that I felt in me.

Fuck it feels good to be wanted.

I rubbed my chest against hers, my bra disappearing and my nipples catching against her sweater.

“A-aaah~” she moaned, “Lyle~”

“It’s been a while since I milked you, hasn’t it Amy?” I asked.

“Y-yeah… I’m f-f-fullllll,” she whimpered.

“That’s not good,” I whispered, “have you been saving yourself for me?”

“Husband, husband, husband,” she murmured.

“Take off your clothes, Amy.” She all but ripped off her sweater, eagerly squirming to remove it while staying as close to me as possible, and once she free herself, started on her cow-printed bra.

“No,” She looked at me, stricken, “let me.”

I place my hand on her chest and her eyes rolled back in her head, her back arching as her hips rocked into mine.

“Lyle, Lyle, Lyle,” she babbled, breathlessly, her hands working down to her skirt and panites both, but with much less precision than she’d had removing her sweater a moment a go, if just as eagerly.

I lovingly slid my hands under the fabric, pulling it up and away with the same motion that pressed my fingers more firmly into her tits.

Her hands stopped working at her clothes, halfway down her knees, and flew up to caress my own hands. Good enough. I didn’t really have an amazing idea of how this worked exactly, between two ladies, but I figured with a tentacle or two, I could fudge it for now.

A bit of myself pooling behind her undid the clasp, and her bra pulled free. I flung it aside, pieces of me flowing up from my waist, questing towards her ass, her pussy, both at once, and the tendrils pierced her just as I kissed her on the mouth. My tongue slid around inside her mouth like jelly, and I had to fight the urge to press in deeper, take her completely, surround her and clean her all over. She hadn’t signed up for that, I argued to myself. I’d talk to her about it later.

Milk began to leak from her breasts, and I panicked at the thought of missing a drop, briefly losing cohesion, reforming again near-instantly, but with her legs entirely coated with myself, flowing through her fur, scouring for anything that had gotten caught up in it. It was a-amazing. The dirt, the grime, it was all horribly _delicious_ , and I couldn’t hold back from cleaning her every inch that I already held, though I managed to resist pulling her in further. All the while I continued to thrust and pulse inside her with the tentacles branching out into her body, deeper and deeper.

Yes… _deeper_. I didn’t neglect her tits either, though, didn’t forget her milk. My hands had opened up a little mouth each, like the ones I used to speak sometimes when I wasn’t thinking, and they sucked at her breasts in tandem. Amy’s efforts to fuck me back looked like nothing less than convulsions as she lost control of herself entirely under the ministrations of two of her husband’s mouths at once, as well as the one already trying to kiss her senseless on her lips.

She came desperately, her hands pressing mine more firmly against her chest every moment, so much so that I had to work to keep them from collapsing into gooey bliss. She kept humping my tentacles, doing her best to milk me in return, although I couldn’t satisfy her like that anymore. The feeling was almost the same, though, and I was barely holding it together. But I felt so _empty_. How could I cum like this? There was no way, it was impossible!

“Amy, Amy, please, my pussy, _please~_ ” She stared at me thoughtlessly for a moment before recognition entered her eyes, and, somewhat reluctantly, her hand trailed down my body, where my waist met the gooey mess that held her fast, and slipped her hand between my thighs. Her fingers quested up against the edges and I was so, so _tense_. The she slipped her fingers inside.

And the world **sang**.

.o0o.

Enemy Territory  
Morningwood  
Founder Faust von Frankenstein's Manor  
Temporary Personal Quarters

Day 11 of Capture  
Evening

I stared up at the ceiling. The room had done a passable job of imitating a Hero’s barracks, once we’d returned to Sally’s home. I tried not to notice the little differences that clued me in that this furniture was more for roleplaying that lifestyle than truthfully living it. I did not need those images in my mind.

...Things were not going particularly well. I was capable of admitting that. A week is an awfully long time, and I had no idea how long my collar could protect me in a city like this. I’d heard stories of people surviving upwards of a month behind enemy lines, a full week and half longer than I’d be here if everything worked out, but none of them had ever been captured like I had. They’d been hiding out, moving closer and closer to the border, hiding their energy signature and dodging patrols. It was pretty likely stories like mine never got told because no one returned home to tell them.

I’d be the first.

I’d made a career out of doing the impossible, after all. They didn’t give the title of ‘Hero’ to just anyone. You had to be smart, quick, strong, and stubborn like a rock. You had to be able to smile at children and townsfolk while being ready to run any of them through any moment. Everybody thought that was absurd, even cruel, at first. Then you saw your first glamour fall, realized it _really could_ be anyone, anytime, anywhere. If you were lucky, someone more experienced was there to catch it. If not, then sometimes a long time comrade was just… gone. Ripped away into the sky, or the ground, or a portal to hell. Always smiling emptily as their minds were overwhelmed in a moment of weakness and flooded with pleasure before they could fortify themselves.

It was just… looking at the townsfolk, always planning how to kill them in a single strike…

It never felt very Heroic.

There was a quiet truth, too. One never whispered by even veterans, but when you realized it yourself, you could see it in their eyes. They knew too. It was _true_. It hurt even thinking it, but I _knew_ it was true.

We’d already lost.

It wasn’t obvious, not at first. It took me a few years to see it, and some never did. The truth of the matter, though, was at some point, there’d gotten to be more of them than us. Not by numbers, not total population, but in terms of strength. What made a monster monstrous had always been their ability to prey on humankind, but after the current Demon Lord took hold, and their hunger… changed shape… they’d slowly grown in power even further, over time.

It was there in the records, if you looked, but you could track it in real time too, if slowly. We had to throw more and more soldiers at less and less monsters to get a victory at all. Soldiers that took years to train, just to have a chance against their casual power. It was why Heroes had even come about, near as I could tell. The Chief God breaking the chains of humanity on those trusted to be pure of heart, so that they could rise to the heights monsters had reached naturally over time.

But time and time again, the monsters pushed us back, losing city after city, countryside after countryside. Defend one town, and then rush to protect another, only to find a den of debauchery sprung up in the first town when your back had turned. Once they decided a place was theirs, it was only a matter of time, as well as how many Heroes you wanted to fall when they decided to simply overwhelm the defences. It was all there, in the history books. There wasn’t really any way to hide it, but most people simply didn’t have access to a wide enough view to see how bad it was. Because the national governments weren’t panicking, the general population just assumed people elsewhere in their kingdoms were holding up better. But they weren’t.

The borders were steady, but not because of anything we’d done. They’d just… stopped advancing. About thirty years ago. No more pushing, no more turning the holy lands Demonic. Well, not at the rate they’d been. We still lost a town, now and then, though the population usually disappeared, and individual people and families went missing all the time, especially near the border, but it could happen even in the capital. Still, it was a drop in the bucket, comparatively.

They were biding their time, and it took me a long while to understand why. I think maybe I knew longer than I’d admit to myself, but the thought made me sick inside. Passage to neighboring kingdoms used their seas, their mountains, their plains. We were ‘allowed’ to leave to sustain ourselves, to think we were clever and quick, or even lucky, but sometimes a caravan was taken as tithe. Situations were similar across the globe, unless you were in one of the heretic states that openly traded with Mamono instead. Otherwise…? We were penned in. Every kingdom, every city-state, every island.

Livestock.

...No one would be staging a daring rescue for me. For all my power, if I fell, I didn’t add much to their side. It wasn’t worth possibly losing more trying to get me back. Besides, there was the albatross around my neck. I’d been claimed... by Samael. _Dammit, Sammie._ ...She’d never stop chasing me, and killing her would be… arduous. Both from a time, resources, and personnel perspective, but also an emotional one. Anywhere I went, she’d be trying to infiltrate in short order, and Chief knows what chaos she’d cause as she did.

Worse, it seems I’d picked up even more interest. Sally, Lyle, _Beeps_. The four of them together would be unstoppable, not to mention the others associated with them they could call on.

Even if I escaped, I’d be running straight to a monastery to receive my Final Reward. Burn the body, grind the bones, and scatter the pieces. Entrust the soul unto an angel, and they might yet escape their doom. It was the only way to be sure no one else would be harmed by my failure. That I wouldn’t simply be brought back to life.

But I had to give them ‘a chance’.

I breathed out a heavy sigh. I had no idea to what lengths I would be compelled to participate, but the contract had been my only hope. A Hero bargaining with a Demon, like in the old stories, from before. The terms could hardly have been better. Lyle was never exactly an _idiot_ but he lived too much in his own head to have predicted what would happen, and had been too sheltered by Beeps to have felt the need to learn his limits.

He still seemed to have his faculties, mostly, but the madness was obviously burning at the edges of his mind, and there was simply no telling when he would catch flame entirely. Alps, for all that they thought they could be useful and reasonable, had to be treated as hostile.

Eventually they turned too.

I needed to get some rest. I had a long few days ahead.


	2. Chapter 2 - Day 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to fefeman for reminding me to post this over here!

I didn’t pull myself together until the morning, and I was still kind of dazed after that. Amy excused herself to go on her morning run, and let me get my bearings. She’d claimed I’d been very cuddly sleeper last night, and I believed it. I got a nice, warm feeling just looking at her. Collapsing into a puddle wasn’t that different from sleeping, it was very restful, and I found the latter much easier if I’d done the former first.  
  
I had other things to focus on this morning, though.  
  
“There,” Charlotte said, “My name, your saddle.”  
  
Blackberry danced back and forth on her hooves, turning in a circle as she did. She spent a lot of her time here in the main room, and I felt a little guilty that it was difficult for her to enter the other rooms in the house. Her earnest glee at the signature seemed to only serve to unnerve Charlotte more.  
  
“Lyle, Lyle, look!” I looked. “She signed my saddle! A real Hero!” She had. “This is the best day _ever_!”  
  
…I felt irrationally jealous. “Really? The best one? You can’t think of anything better?”  
  
Her eyes widened. “No no no, I mean, it’s _a_ best day ever, not _the_ best day ever, sorry Lyle.”  
  
I let out an exaggerated sigh of relief. “Good, I was worried I’d lost the first and second spots. Our marriage is really important to me, and I put a lot of work into that date to make it absolutely perfect.”  
  
She blushed and squeed, and I realized I was watching Charlotte for a reaction, waiting for her to realize I was still Blackberry’s best day ever, that she was **mine** , not hers, and then _I_ realized how dumb that was.  
  
“So what are we waiting on _now_?” Charlotte was being a bit crabby.  
  
Well, a bit _crabbier_ than I wanted to excuse, even considering her situation. I’d told her I’d take her out to get some supplies, whatever she wanted within reason. I’d mostly intended to help her get comfortable while she stayed with us, but she’d asked to buy a spear and shield, and I’d agreed, to her surprise. She’d asked for camping supplies; we’d be getting those too. I hoped she wouldn’t use them in the end, but I’d rather she got home safely than getting caught by an Amazon or something on the way to the border, winding up part of some insular tribe, and then we never heard from her again.  
  
But that wouldn’t happen. We’d convince her. I’d convince her. I needed to get a chance to talk to Samael. She’s the one who knows the most about Charlotte these days, and she’d probably be a lot more honest.  
  
“Faust asked us to wait. She has something that’s going to help keep things calm out there, even with you walking around, and I think that’s worth waiting for.”  
  
She looked irritated, crossing her arms and leaning back against the wall. Kind of petulant for a big Hero, but I did need to remember that this was basically the only outlet she had in what must be a very frightening situation, from her perspective.  
  
“I’m supposed to protect you, right?” She looked at me, frowning, and I continued, “Shouldn’t you be more pleased I’m taking that seriously?”  
  
She nodded, slowly. “I’m not sure I trust her to follow through on your behalf, though.”  
  
That wasn’t unfair. Faust comes on pretty strongly.  
  
“Sally wouldn’t hurt us, Charlotte, she loves us.” Blackberry had accepted Charlotte into our ‘herd’ rather quickly, and seemed to be taking a liking to Samael as well. I’d have to work hard to make sure she didn’t suffer for that.  
  
“I’ll ask Faust when she comes out.” I said, “She wouldn’t lie to me.”  
  
It didn’t look like Charlotte shared the faith I had, but it was a moot point, Faust was walking out of her room now. I’d asked her for her help, much like I had with Blackberry’s date. I was confident in my ability to convince the others here at home not to mistreat Charlotte, but walking unguarded through the bustling streets? I didn’t want to know what would happen if I failed to uphold my end of the bargain, and it only took one desperate Mamono to cross that line.  
  
If Charlotte were a man, I’m not sure it would have even been possible, frankly. Most monsters are only passingly interested in adding human women into their ranks, but an unattached man, even escorted by another Mamono? Well, I wasn’t sure there wouldn’t be at least one in the crowd who’d consider that an invitation to try to seduce him ‘properly’.  
  
Faust hadn’t let me down with Blackberry, and as I’d just explained to Charlotte, I was confident she had a solution for this, too.  
  
…That is, I _had been_.  
  
“Behold!” she said, “I present to you the ingenious solution to all of your problems.”  
  
It didn’t _look_ ingenious.  
  
“Sally, that’s just a bundle of dirty cloth.” I said.  
  
Faust glared at me. “ _This_ is no mere ‘dirty cloth’, Lyle. Think you me a simple seamstress?”  
  
I opened my mouth, but she held up her finger, her tail swaying menacingly behind her, sharp spines on display. I let her finish.  
  
“Indeed, though this may seem useless at first, it is in fact the same type of magical cloth many Mummies make use of to hide their sensitive skin from casual touch.” She seemed quite smug. “I intend to inflict myself with the Mummy’s pleasure curse quite soon, and these same strips of cloth will serve me well when I do. Until then, however, they make for a stunningly simple disguise.”  
  
“Will that work?” I asked, “I… really can’t risk breaching the contract.”  
  
I didn’t want to know what would happen if I did. Just the idea of it was somehow incredibly foreboding, setting my body at high alert.  
  
She moved up closer to me, placing her hand on my shoulder. “Lyle, my love, you must know I would never risk your safety? I assure you, this will succeed.”  
  
“If you say so, Faust.” I tried not to make it obvious how much even this simple touch made me want her. Poor Charlotte didn’t need to see that.  
  
Yet.  
  
She smiled up at me. “It is true that this would be unlikely to work with any regular human woman, but Charlotte, while wearing that collar, quite by design does not set off the ‘purity’ instincts that Mamono possess, even if her human energies are not hidden, per se. Surrounded by yourself, Beepatrice, and Blackberry, and disguised as a Mamono famous for disliking casual touch from strangers, this will work. The most important thing is confidence. Believe she is Mamono, and they will too.”  
  
I turned to Charlotte, “Well? Does that satisfy you? I think I’m convinced.”  
  
“I’ll need to remove my clothes for this?” Charlotte asked, her tone flat.  
  
Faust’s smile turned devilish. “Indeed, and entirely so. Mummies do not bother with even the skimpiest of underthings. The touch of mundane fabric on such naturally sensitive areas would be akin to torture.”  
  
“Absolutely not.” Charlotte said, crossing her arms.  
  
Faust huffed, like a child who’d been denied a new toy. “Come now Charlotte, where is your vaunted bravery? It is no cursed gift, as agreed. Truthfully, I think you shall find no better armor than this against Mamono, after all, their sole magical property is the _reduction_ of pleasure. You would be wise to take these with you, should you escape. There is no more effective countermeasure against Eromancy than these. Or… is it that you prefer your _dignity_ to your _virginity_? I can certainly oblige you in that case.”  
  
“Faust…” I said, warningly.  
  
She looked at me, eyes aflutter. “Lyle dear, I am merely offering. If she accepts of her own free will, there is hardly a need to protect her.”  
  
My eyes narrowed. “ _Sally_.”  
  
She hung her head. “Oh very well. Go then, and have your prude parade you… you… you killjoy. Gallivant across town with nary a sensual sway to your step. What foolishness. I will remain here. I have an appointment with an Owl Mage to see about gathering her lost feathers for my projects.”  
  
She looked back up. “Before I forget, Lyle, how do you feel about mono-eyed Mamono?”  
  
Non-sequitur, but okay. “I’ve never really thought about it. Why?”  
  
“I’ve been considering perhaps, the eye of a Gazer, to replace my own. A large amount of real estate, yes, but they’re quite powerf-“  
  
“Faust, your eyes are _gorgeous_. Please don’t remove them. I love them.” I said, hardly even pausing to think.  
  
“You love-?” She began to blush. “Such a bother you are. Whatever am I to do? Very well, Lyle, to satisfy your silliness, I will acquiesce. Perhaps there is another ocular typing that I can mimic with arcane means instead…?”  
  
The last part was said as she wandered off into her room, the Mummy wrappings still in her hands.  
  
“Beeps, can you…?” I gestured vaguely, and she nodded, following after Faust. If I went into her room while she was in a ‘Science Mood’, one thing would lead to another and it’d be a few hours before I’d remember I’d wanted to leave.  
  
“Do you need any help getting changed?” Blackberry asked, “I used to help my sisters all the time, and-”  
  
“No, thank you.” Charlotte replied curtly, stalking towards her room, catching the wrappings as Beeps tossed them her way. “I’ll be out shortly.”  
  
“Oh.” Blackberry said, forlornly. “Okay.”  
  
I put my hand on her back.  
  
“Don’t take it personally, Blackberry.” I said. “She’s just scared.”  
  
“I know, that’s why I want to be there for her.” She said, in response. “…I don’t know what to do, Lyle.”  
  
“She’ll come around, heart of my heart.”  
  
Blackberry perked up a little, she loved the cute nicknames.  
  
But I was less certain, inside.

.oOo.

Charlotte seemed largely uncomfortable in her tightly wound ‘clothes’, but she’d wrapped them mostly the way I might have expected a Mamono to do so, rather than a human, so credit where it’s due. Being extraordinarily well-muscled, she didn’t have traditional curves per se, but the tight, thin wrapping definitely accentuated both what little she did have, as well as those same muscles, and rather fetchingly so. It wasn’t _showy_ exactly, although there was a little effort to show off her chest to the open air, but since it was practically skin tight, it didn’t need to be any more revealing than it already was.  
  
She likely could have gotten away with looser wraps, but I noted her joints seemed largely exposed, maybe one layer each at most, and I thought that maybe she knew more about how to move her body than I did, so I really had no complaints.  
  
Charlotte, for her part, while I doubted she trusted us exactly, seemed to be much more focused on the crowd than Beeps, Blackberry, or myself, so she at least seemed to have accepted we weren’t _actively_ out to get her, if only because of the contract. On that note, the disguise largely seemed to be working, with Beeps staying within arm’s reach of her for safety’s sake, but most of the rest of the crowd being polite enough to give the ‘Mummy’ some space, as Faust had suggested they would.  
  
…Or maybe it was because of whatever the heck was happening with Blackberry.  
  
The market was Blackberry’s element; in a way I’d never seen anyone in their element before. Maybe Faust, when she was doing her thing, but that hardly counted. Her frankly ludicrously large body effortlessly flowed around pedestrians, and even riding in her saddle, my feet never clipped anyone once. More than that though, was the sheer _ease_ with which she seemed to have garnered a relationship with the street vendors and shopkeeps. Not only did they all know her by name, but she seemed to know them all as well, and even recognized and greeted some of their regulars as we passed their shops by.  
  
It was when one of them apprised her of a sale on the other end of the street, one that one of their _competitors_ was running, that I knew I was out of my league.  
  
“Hey, Jemima! How’s your Husband?” she asked one, a Harpy, who seemed to have painted or dyed her feathers an assortment of colors.  
  
Jemima just grinned. “He’s still asleep, poor thing. Wore him out last night.”  
  
Blackberry squealed, the noise startling Charlotte as she watched the interplay. Watching someone be afraid of Blackberry in any context was a little comical, but I tried to be sympathetic.  
  
“You two are just so cute together!” Blackberry said, “Oh! Jemmie! This is my Husband, Lyle. He turned into a lady, but we’re still in love, so it’s okay!”  
  
Jemima, to her credit, took that in stride, as my heart fluttered and I blushed a little, waving. Blackberry still loved me. I knew that, but _hearing_ it said, and so proudly, so casually, was a balm on so many little worries.  
  
“Hi, Lyle, I’ve heard a lot about you. Is it true you were a sheriff?” ‘Jemmie’ asked, almost at a whisper, and hand hiding her mouth, as though the answer was deeply fascinating, and sharing it later would win her points.  
  
Um… How many of my personal details are the talk of the town, exactly?  
  
“Uh, yeah. For a few years. Gave it up for love.”  
  
That answer only brightened her smile. “I’m glad to hear that! Love is a crazy thing, huh?”  
  
“Too right,” I said, without thinking. Or perhaps, thinking of Faust?  
  
She turned back to Blackberry. “So, what are you looking for today?”  
  
“We need camping supplies,” Blackberry replied.  
  
Wait a minute…  
  
She continued, “They have to be really tough, but…” she glanced at Charlotte, “cute too? They should keep you safe and warm, but make you _feel_ warm and safe. Like… a nice hug that pulls you away from a scary fall.”  
  
I’m not out shopping with Blackberry… _she’s_ out shopping with _me_! I was admittedly used to this sort of thing from Beeps, but even she seemed content to take a backseat here, mostly focusing on Charlotte, and the distance between her and the crowd. She had a small smile on her face whenever she glanced Blackberry’s way, though. She seemed to be taking this whole ‘adoption’ thing pretty seriously.  
  
“A nice hug, huh…?” Jemima said, “I have something like that, I think.” She went down what looked like a trapdoor in a frame, just laid down on the ground, and she called back up through the opening. “Yep! Hold on!”  
  
She emerged from the trapdoor holding a collapsed tent. It was neon pink. “It’s waterproof, thermal, and snaps up in three easy steps. That’s what I call a tent.”  
  
“I love it!” Blackberry said.  
  
Charlotte and I shared a look, before she looked away, somewhat grumpily. Neon pink wasn’t exactly known for its stealth capabilities.  
  
…Still, it _was_ kinda cute. “Is it lined with fur inside?” I asked, “That’s really cool.”  
  
“Yes it is! It keeps you all warm and snuggly, while you get… warm and snuggly~” she said, sing-song, as her eyebrows bounced up and down.  
  
I felt Blackberry shiver and I suddenly knew what our next date-night would be like. I’d have to remember where this stall was.  
  
We thanked Jemima, and were on our way with the new tent, having forked over some vouchers to cover the cost.  
  
“We’ll get you something to hide yourself from prying eyes, too, Charlotte. I know the color isn’t ideal for that, but worst come to worst, Faust can give you a deployable stealth magic thingy.” Or maybe one of those trapdoors. If they worked like the doors in my home, and it looked like they did, I didn’t know why anyone sold tents at all. You could carry your house on your back if you wanted.  
  
I guess that’s not very romantic, though. There’s a point where having everything as conveniently as possible starts to actually get in the way, which is something I’d have said was impossible only a few weeks ago.  
  
Things progressed along that vein for a while, as we mopped up the various things one might need on a camping trip, from silverware to veggies, to bedding and firewood. It was quicker than I’d have managed even despite the delays to talk to everyone, because Blackberry knew exactly where she was going.  
  
However, as we crossed into a section of the city I was reasonably certain I’d never seen before, Beepatrice came to a sudden halt, her robotic frame suddenly indistinguishable from a statue, due to her unnatural stillness.  
  
“Beeps?” I asked, “What is it?”  
  
Her eyes were narrowed, her head slightly tilted, and her gears began spinning at speed without warning. She looked confused, and almost angry. Given how little her face usually expressed, that made me… quite nervous. Charlotte too, was watching her carefully, and Blackberry was shuffling on her hooves as Beeps stayed silent for a moment more.  
  
“…Signal.” She finally said, pointing out into the see of shops, stalls, and stores.  
  
“SOS.” She said. I didn’t know what an ‘essohess’ was, but it had her agitated, so I didn’t like it.  
  
“Do you want to go look?” She nodded.  
  
“Please. …Familiar.”  
  
Alright then.  
  
“Charlotte, hop up.” I said, patting Blackberry’s saddle as I slid down.  
  
She gave me a look like she couldn’t believe I was ordering her around, but I didn’t have time for this.  
  
“Let’s go.” Blackberry shuffled over to Charlotte and nudged her. “Beeps?”  
  
She took off running.  
  
So did I.

.oOo.

Beeps’ pace was something to behold, but more novel to me was that it was something I _could_ behold. I was sure she was holding back for my sake, and for Blackberry’s, but Blackberry was probably going all out, at least as much as she could in a town like this, and I had to work not to _outpace_ her, and I was never in danger of losing sight of Beeps.  
  
Of course, she had a very showy way of running, making her easy to spot, leaping and flipping over obstacles with only a casual touch or brush against them, never slowing down, whereas I had to dodge a cart or pedestrian here or there, but even though I threw myself off balance a few times, and splattered myself flat against the ground in a puddle, I never really lost momentum either, and simply sprung right back up going basically exactly as fast. It was weird, but handy.  
  
By the time Blackberry came galloping through, everyone had already cleared her a path. It’s difficult to miss that much woman moving that fast, making that much noise, especially when that noise includes things like; “Oh no, sorry!”, “Please excuse me!” and “Hi Caroline, I’m in a hurry, bye!”  
  
Either way, Morningwood, being laid out like a wagon wheel, wasn’t hard to traverse from one end to the other, even if it could take a while to do. We’d been roughly two-thirds of the way down to the edge of the town, and so it wasn’t long before Beeps came to a stop at a door set into a wall, much like many of the others, with a simple sign over top.  
  
It read; ‘Don’t pass, buy!’  
  
Several people ran out as I approached, and I heard crashing sounds coming from inside. I cautiously entered the doorway, taking care in case something or someone came flying out of it at me, but I seemed to have gotten lucky there, at least.  
  
The store looked like it had been a curio shop, and probably technically still was, although it was more of a curious mess, at this point. Beeps had torn through it at a record pace, upending everything in a frantic search for _something_.  
  
“Ma’am?” A Cyclops with short black hair, and a cute nose piercing, was standing behind Beeps, trying to get her attention. Presumably, she was the owner, and she was using a tone I’d had to use myself before. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”  
  
“No.”  
  
Always straight to the heart of it, eh, Beeps?  
  
“I’m sorry to bother you,” I said, and the woman noticed me for the first time.  
  
She seemed… upset.  
  
“Is this thing yours?” She gestured to Beeps, who was currently face-first in a pile of detritus with her legs in the air. She was all but swimming through the haphazard pile of… stuff.  
  
“ _She_ is, yes.” I didn’t like her tone.  
  
“ _She’s_ tearing up my store!” Oh.  
  
“…She is, yes.” There wasn’t much else I could really say to that.  
  
“I’m here!” Blackberry said, as she slowed to a stop, bracing herself against the doorframe to bleed off the last bit of speed with a soft ‘thud’, and peeking through the doorway. I could very barely see Charlotte over her shoulder.  
  
Beeps, meanwhile, hopped over the counter, and started climbing the stairs back behind them up out of view.  
  
“Hey, that’s my _house_ , you can’t-!” the Cyclops started to say, and she moved towards the counter.  
  
However, I heard from above a muffled; “Success,” and a few moments later, Beeps was coming back down the steps, holding a large, custom-made hammer, with an odd, cube-shaped striking surface made from something like brass. It looked like the hammer had been built _around_ it, bizarrely.  
  
“Hey, that’s mine! My mother gave it to me! Who do you think you-” The Cyclops took a step forward, and Beeps shot her without even looking at her, the poor woman hitting the floor and falling into a deep sleep, while Beeps’ stride continued unabated back towards me.  
  
Uh…  
  
She held it out to me, expectantly.  
  
“Um… good job?” I said, more than a little confused.  
  
“Friend,” she said, pushing the hammer towards me a little more.  
  
“You’re friends with a hammer?” I asked, still a little stunned.  
  
She cocked her head to the side. “…Essentially.”  
  
Maybe she liked her tools a little _too_ much?  
  
Charlotte piped in; “What’s happening in there? I can’t see anything but this stupid pun on this stupid sign!”  
  
“Oops, sorry.” Blackberry backed up a little so Charlotte could shove her head in.  
  
She spent a moment taking everything in. It was a huge mess. “Is that monster alright?” She finally asked, solemnly, as she slid out of the saddle, and walked in through the door.  
  
“I don’t know. She _did_ seem a little distraught,” I said. It was sweet that she was worried.  
  
As she crossed towards the sleeping Cyclops, I took the hammer from Beeps, and gestured to the store.  
  
“You made a mess.” I said.  
  
She hung her head, in lieu of an answer.  
  
“Clean up and fix what you can, I’ll get the rest before we go.” If I was looking forward to the chance to eat all these different kinds of wood chips a little too much, well, who would know?  
  
I turned back to Charlotte as Beeps got to work at speed.  
  
She was crouched over the woman, looking down with an intense expression on her face. Her hand was hovering over the body, indecisively.  
  
I walked over and crouched with her.  
  
“The whole one-eye thing is kinda cool up close, huh?” I might be able to do that myself, probably. I could make eyes basically everywhere else.  
  
She looked at me with disgust. “She looks like she’s still breathing. How hard did Beeps hit her?”  
  
What? “She didn’t?” I said, confused, “She shot her with one of her energy bullets. Sends you right to sleep. She might have got a little knocked around when she hit the floor, I guess, but she ought to be hardier than that.”  
  
Charlotte’s eyes widened, and she stood, blushing. “O-oh. I thought… well, it doesn’t matter. Everything seems to be fine, then.” She walked back out of the building and climbed back up on Blackberry, making an effort to look every which way but back in here.  
  
Which left me in charge of Beeps’ ‘friend’.  
  
I walked over towards the doorway, getting out of the way of the reconstruction going on, leaning against the wall next to Blackberry.  
  
“Is Momma really friends with that hammer, Lyle?” She asked, as I settled in.  
  
I shrugged. “She seems to think so. The Cyclops disagreed, and look where that got her.” I’d have to do something about all of that later, but now wasn’t the time. She’d be asleep for a few hours, at least.  
  
“Can I see it?” I didn’t see why not. I lifted the hammer up to closer to Blackberry’s eye-level.  
  
“Hmm…” She said, and she made her imitation of Faust’s ‘thinking’ face, complete with the signature Blackberry twist, the tongue stuck slightly out, to the side.  
  
“Hello!” she said, briefly startling me. “Beeps is my Momma! If you’re really friends with her, do you want to be friends with me too?”  
  
I had just enough time to start chuckling to myself about how cute and earnest that was, when the bronze part of the hammer flashed blue, several times, revealing intricate grids of light running all across the cube like veins, invisible when they weren’t shining.  
  
I nearly dropped it in shock, awkwardly lifting it as I was.  
  
Even Charlotte was back to looking at us, and she looked as surprised as I felt.  
  
“Lyle, do you think that’s a yes? I don’t know a lot about talking hammers.”  
  
I didn’t know for sure, either, but I did know one thing.  
  
Blue lights on bronze was awfully familiar.  
  
I replied, “I’m not sure this is a hammer at all.”

.oOo.

The one thing about Beeps, if I had to complain, is that when she needs to explain something complicated that only she understands, she… struggles. When she presents me with a weird-looking hammer, says “friend”, and leaves me to puzzle everything else out, that leaves a lot to infer. I don’t think it’s her fault, she does a lot with what she can do, but it can be frustrating in situations like this, especially since I’ve gotten so used to relying on her.  
  
Akubra wasn’t really helping to clear things up.  
  
She’d been waiting in the living room when we returned. Beeps had left quickly, going into her closet, and metallic tinkering sounds could be heard echoing from within. Blackberry had gone back to her room as well, she’d had a pretty big day, and I didn’t begrudge her that, but that left me with Charlotte and Akubra by myself.  
  
“Mmm,” Akubra said, staring intently at the hammer, “Mhmmm…”  
  
I’d set the odd instrument down on the center table, inside our circle of couches and comfy chairs, and I was seated across from Akubra at the moment, as she slowly circled the table.  
  
Charlotte, who was seated in a chair she’d pulled back some distance away from the low coffee table, was watching Akubra with a sort of alarm. It’s one thing to sign up for Mamono roommates, but Wonderlanders are something else entirely.  
  
“What is she…” Charlotte started to say.  
  
I interrupted, “No idea.”  
  
Akubra had a variety of metallic tools and magnifying glasses all arranged around the hammer, and she would prod it for a time before switching to a new tool.  
  
She made odd sounds as she moved around the table in a slow circle, forcing me to pull my legs up now and then to let her pass.  
  
She was wearing her usual bizarre style of formal wear, something that stuck out amongst Mamono, and rather strikingly so. It was a sort of suit, like a nobleman might wear, a pale blueish green with large, darker green diamond patterns sewn in here and there. However, the suitcoat was long, far longer than seemed practical, and the shoulders were rather boxy, almost like they were stuffed. A small wooden tabletop was set atop each one, and whatever was set on them, often a cup of tea, seemed to stick, ignoring gravity. She also wore a white, puffy shirt with a deep green neckerchief, a dark green vest, and matching slacks that were well fitted, but not beyond decency.  
  
The buttons across her outfit were mushroom-like, red and white, generally, but a few other varieties as well. Notably, golden ones appeared to serve as cuff-links. Her hat was widely brimmed, and with a sort of upward curl to it, and it had a leathery looking braided strap around the base that made it seem oddly almost rugged in comparison to her clothing, although the color matched precisely. It seemed almost too large for her head, but that was likely because it was actually a mushroom of some kind, or at least, the cap of one. I wasn’t clear exactly if Akubra herself was made of mushroom, merely hosted them, or what exactly that was all about. It seemed rude to ask, and the answer would likely hurt my head in any case. I knew they infrequently dotted her skin underneath her clothes, but she didn’t seem bothered by them, if anything she liked when they were touched.  
  
All in all, there was nothing especially sexual about her appearance at all. Her clothes were well-fitted, but merely accented her form, which was sort of willowy, but otherwise average, at least by Mamono standards. Her appeal lay more in her laissez-faire outlook and casually refined grace, rather than flaunting her body, and getting in your face. She let you get comfortable with her ‘perfectly reasonable’ atmosphere, but her seemingly blatant madness seeped into your world more and more the longer you went along with her flow.  
  
I’d initially felt confused by her, even a little hostile towards her, but my opinion had changed pretty drastically after she essentially saved my life. Whatever she was about, she clearly cared for us. Faust had looked into it, speaking with Twinkle Star, and apparently Akubra had been living here since the day the home was built in Sally’s honor, in preparation to host her when she finally gave up on humanity and took on her role as a Founder. That had been damn near when Morningwood was first… well, _founded_ , and Akubra, who’d earned a boon through some small service, asked to be allowed to upkeep the place, though it had only just been completed. She’d built her hat shop where it still stood today only shortly after, though at the time it had been far outside the city. She was in a prime spot on a main avenue now, though, and somehow I thought it wasn’t coincidence.  
  
In her own way, she was pretty well respected around town. While she wasn’t a founder, she was one of the second-wave artists, some of the earliest citizens of Morningwood, and apparently she had a larger role in the community, though people seemed to enjoy playing coy about it. It had something to do with a second store that she ran, besides her hat shop, but that was all I’d been able to pin down so far, while on my walks with Amy, or when browsing the market. I hadn’t had a chance to make a concerted effort yet.  
  
It felt weird, having to run an investigation on a housemate, and on top of that, a woman I’d slept with, but investigations were familiar ground, leaning back on my life as a Sheriff, and well… I wouldn’t get anywhere just asking her, even if she gave me her most straightforward answer, I’d only wind up with a headache. …Plus, I used to investigate Sally all the time, and while we were neither living together nor sleeping together at the time, that was all basically formality. Those two things were literally all that our marriage had changed between us, so this was basically kinda romantic, I guess?  
  
“ _Who_ is she?” Charlotte asked, shaking me out of my musings.  
  
“Uh, Akubra.” I said, awkwardly. “She’s kind of hard to explain, but she means well. She lives here with us, and I think we’re married, by Mamono standards anyway, but she’s sort of a free spirit. I’m working on figuring it out.”  
  
“Uh huh. How many women is that, anyway, Lyle?” Charlotte asked, somewhat derisively.  
  
“Sh-shut up. It was Faust’s idea.” I said, crossing my arms, and looking away from her. I didn’t _mean_ to become a depraved harem sex wife. It just worked out that way.  
  
Akubra’s pacing had brought her in front of me again, but she bent at the waist, placing her hands on the coffee table at an odd angle, probably lining her face up with one of the magnifying glasses. I put my legs back down, one on either side, since she didn’t seem like she was moving, and tried not to stare at her butt too much. I had to behave for Charlotte.  
  
“Did we get everything you wanted?” I asked Charlotte, to distract myself, “We kinda got caught up in something at the end there.”  
  
“I still need a spear and a shield,” she said, grumpily.  
  
Oops. Probably the most important items, from her view.  
  
“Ah… Sorry,” I said. “I’ll have Faust get a weapon smith over here, we’ll get you some custom made, as an apology.”  
  
She looked briefly surprised by that, and opened her mouth to say something, but she was interrupted.  
  
“Finished,” Akubra said, and she sat down, forcing her hips right between my legs. She leaned back, squirming her back against my chest, and her butt right into my… um.  
  
“Comfy?” I asked, wryly, and a little embarrassed.  
  
“Yes.” She replied, “You make for exquisitely pleasurable furniture, Lyle.”  
  
It took me a second to parse that, but as soon as I did I blushed so hard I was afraid my face was going to catch fire. I instinctively wrapped myself around her a little, doing my best to support her.  
  
 ** _Somebody was finally sitting on me!_**  
  
My voice cracked, filled with emotion, surprisingly watery, as I said; “R-really? You mean it?”  
  
“Of course,” she said, tenderly. “I’ve never felt so ergonomically satisfied.”  
  
That was both the weirdest thing I’d ever heard someone say, as well as possibly the most emotionally fulfilling.  
  
I let out an embarrassingly throaty moan.  
  
“U-use me m-m-m-more, p-please…” I said, involuntarily.  
  
“Oookay, that’s enough for me.” Charlotte said, and I whipped my head towards her, mortified that I’d gotten so swept up in front of her, as she stalked away towards her room.  
  
“I’m sorry!” I cried after her, “I didn’t mean to!”  
  
She waved me off as she closed the door with a thud. I heard the lock slide closed shortly after.  
  
“Shit.” I said. “I’d been doing so well.”  
  
“Something wrong, Lyle?” Akubra asked. I wasn’t sure whether she’d done that on purpose or not.  
  
“Well, it’s just…” I fumbled, increasingly aware of her again.  
  
“I was hoping you’d be willing to let me take a bath in you, but if you aren’t up for it, we can delay?” Akubra said, her tone as airy as ever.  
  
“W-what?”  
  
“I’m more of a shower person generally, it’s been some time since I last had a chance to sink into a tub and get absolutely soaking wet.”  
  
Gulp.

.oOo.  
  


It was with some surprise and a little discomfort I realized I’d never actually seen the inside of our bathroom. That sounded bad, but by the time we’d arrived in Morningwood, I’d already changed enough that I didn’t really digest anymore, so I actually wasn’t sure where our toilets were, or if we had them at all. The first night in our new home, I was too tired to do much but head straight to sleep, and I woke up the next morning in Faust’s body. Immediately after that, I lost Beeps to Faust, which had been really distracting, and I wound up telling stories to Amy and Blackberry into the night to keep my mind off of it. That was the same night when my clothes arrived, so I never needed to bathe again after that following morning.  
  
That I had good reason to have missed out didn’t remove that weirdly grungy feeling, but it was completely imaginary. If I got any dirt on me, I just sort of ate it. I was probably the cleanest surface for miles. Did I need water, maybe? Or maybe something else… Something to worry about later.  
  
As I stepped into the bathroom, rather than whatever I might have expected, I was greeted by something more like a lake, captured and put inside a house. Maybe ‘pond’ was a better word? ‘Bath’ definitely wasn’t, not in my view, anyway. It was cut into the floor, with what looked like large rocks, or small boulders, shaved, carved, and set into the floor itself, making a sort of rough lake bottom, as well as providing a sort of natural feeling edge to lean against while you were in the water. The shape of the pond was a kind of triangle, sort of like a bisected diamond, with the largest edge back flush against the wall. The floor was covered in a sort of pleasantly squishy moss. No need to wash it, I guess.  
  
The water was crystal clear, but steam danced across the surface, and briefly I wondered about the temperature of my own body. When I touched other people, we seemed to be roughly the same, heat-wise. …Was this something I’d not be able to replicate? The best part of bathing, in my mind, was sinking into nearly boiling water. If I couldn’t even do that much, what use was I as a bath? I felt my body burble angrily. I didn’t want to be inferior to bathwater! My fists clenched, and I turned my head away.  
  
There was an enormous mirror along that entire wall, and it showed the opposite wall within, revealing several enclosed alcoves walled with dark, ornate wood, one for a few toilets, another for a group shower, what looked like two or three private rooms with much smaller tubs, and a few sinks on the wall right next to me, where the door was.  
  
I couldn’t avoid seeing that enormous body of water in the reflection, though.  
  
Ugh. It wasn’t worth worrying about, I probably wouldn’t be able to fill something like that up, anyway. …That was actually worse! Now I’d not only lost to simple bathwater once, but doubly so! I couldn’t stand it!  
  
I stormed back out of the bathroom, heading to Faust’s room. Akubra was getting ready, whatever that might entail, so I had some time.  
  
I slammed the door open, sort of aware, in an out-of-body way, that I was getting worked up over something that was very silly, but damn it, this was my first time! I wanted it to be _perfect_!  
  
Faust spun in place, levitating as she usually did, and wearing her cloak, her hat, and a few bandages, but nothing else. The bandages were new, but having spoken to her earlier, I knew what that was all about, and besides, I was here for something else.  
  
“Lyle, what is it? I’m at a critical spot in my testing and-” She said, somewhat sternly.  
  
“I need your help.” I said, teeth clenched. “You have to _make me hotter_!”  
  
Her eyes lit up, and she set her work down immediately. She floated across the room, and began circling me. I spun to face her, but she put her hand on my shoulder, lightly, and held me there. I stayed as she resumed her circuit.  
  
“Hotter, hmm? I see… A worthy goal indeed, though difficult, to be sure. **Quite** difficult.” She said, sumptously.  
  
“But you can do it?” I all but demanded, “I need it to be fast.”  
  
She gave me a level look. “Lyle, I am Faust von Frankenstein. I can do _anything_.” She floated back towards her table, slowly.  
  
I followed, her, after a moment, moving closer to the center of the room.  
  
“No, no, stay there, my love. This will be faster if you strip yourself while I prepare.”  
  
‘Strip’ wasn’t exactly the right word for it, but I understood the sentiment, and now wasn’t the time to poke fun at her for semantics. She was doing me a huge favor.  
  
I’d taken to wearing loose sort of heavy brown robes, although admittedly they were technically just more of myself. But… the illusion sort of cut down on the heavily sexualized nature of my body, which I wasn’t really ready to deal with yet, even if the texture of the robes were kinda damp and clingy in a way that undermined that intent some. It wasn’t like they were soaked through, just… Ugh. I _also_ tried to ignore how it felt less like I was being monastic, and more like I was playing up the mystery, as well as how the robes tended to move with an imaginary wind now and then to highlight my curves even further. The effect made the whole thing feel very mischievous and flirtatious, rather than modest, but the baseline was still better than nothing.  
  
I focused a little, and the clothes slid off, splashing down to the floor with a sort of gloppy noise of thick mud slapping against dry ground, and they pooled around my feet, once more nothing but my purplish blue slime, which still smelled vaguely like boysenberry. I pulled at it in a way that I can only describe as ‘inward’, and it gradually disappeared into my away-place, which honestly desperately needed a better name. I’d ask Faust for suggestions, but I’d wind up under study for at least a few hours, only to be saddled with a name that was scientifically accurate, but which was also even more of a mouthful. And she’d be grumpy if I didn’t use it, too.  
  
“Ready,” I said. She was still messing with stuff at her table, but she started speaking anyway, though she was still looking away from me.  
  
“There are several avenues we can pursue, and I will leave the particulars to you, my love.” She said, starting in. “The easiest place to look for inspiration would be other Slime-type monsters.”  
  
“What, like a Lava Golem?” I asked.  
  
“Hmmm…” she said, “Technically not slimes, but I take your point. However, I’m not certain that’s wise, or even practical. They are weak to water, and prefer volcanic climates, as well as being quite aggressive. If we were to somehow find one here, infusing you with their properties might change your personality significantly, or if not, you might become even more placid and submissive than you are already whenever it rains, or if you were splashed. The change between their frantic, aggressive heat, and their easy-going water-logged selves is quite drastic, and the same passivity increase applied to you as you are… I’m not certain you could bring yourself to hold together in that case.”  
  
Hey. That’s not nice.  
  
“Bubble Slimes are addictive, and Sea Slimes possess paralytic poison, however neither are tremendously useful to someone like you, already capable of completely surrounding another and pleasuring them so completely that the difference between their awakened desire for you and true addiction may well be academic, if it indeed exists at all, at least if your own experiences with the Shoggoth are anything to go by.”  
  
She tapped her fingers.  
  
“Humpty Eggs, the Slimes of Wonderland, have useful benefits for a husband when their slime is eaten, which might be something to pursue, enhancing the beneficial effect of ingesting you, but that is not especially helpful on its own. Dark Slimes possess a core, not unlike my phylactery, but there’s no clear research on what advantages other Slimes gain from integrating them, if any. It may be as simple as more magical ability, something like more intelligence, or even the ability to change their color or texture more effectively.”  
  
“And their temperature?”  
  
“I don’t see why not.” She dug through papers on her desk, her tail peeking out from under her cloak, swaying back and forth and making a tempting target. However, I couldn’t really get caught up in anything at the moment. “Taking your inspiration for the Slime-like, rather than merely Slimes themselves, Dark Matter hold some potential, nearly infinite potential, in fact, but frankly we do not have the energy required, and likely will not until some time after we acquire a husband. More of an end goal for you, I think, although anti-gravity and mastery of Dark Energy makes it such a bother to wait.”  
  
I let her keep going. Whatever alchemical thoughts were going on in her head, I wasn’t exactly following, but she wouldn’t let me down, I knew that.  
  
“That leaves three options, by my rough estimation, at least without more research. Dorome, with their terrakinesis and ability to essentially become entire landmasses, represent a significant upgrade, if it’s possible to fuse their might to yours, and their mud is said to be warm and soft.”  
  
Warm and soft is better than nothing, but not ideal. Although mudbaths are a thing people seem to enjoy, so I shouldn’t discount it, even if the part of me that still had maidly instincts was incensed at the idea of essentially becoming dirt, when dirt should obviously be cleaned and eaten, not spread about.  
  
I piped up, “That sounds promising.”  
  
She made a noise of agreement. “Unfortunately, if you need it ‘fast’, as you say, I’m afraid I cannot in good conscience recommend that option. Not only would it close off the Dark Matter option, which would be unfortunate, but much more importantly, binding you to elemental earth would be dangerous and hard-fought. Not something I can safely rush. I will not risk failure when it is your soul I would be playing with. You are too precious to me.”  
  
That’s… intensely heart-warming, but still a little disappointing.  
  
“That leaves two, right?”  
  
“Indeed.” She was still digging around over there. “I’d been struck by the idea you might be easier to convert to pure ectoplasm, to make you into a Ghost, but ultimately I dismissed it. I am too attached to the idea of you as a Wight, I will not surrender that dream.”  
  
Her tail whipped back and forth aggressively.  
  
“That led me to thinking, however, you may be compatible with a Kitsune-Bi.”  
  
“Huh. I’ve never heard of them. What are they?”  
  
“Proto-Youko and Proto-Inari, essentially. Spirit beings made of Foxfire.”  
  
Fire. Now we’re talking.  
  
“They’re known to bind to human women, and those women are technically considered Mamono. Aside from ghostly ears and a tail, there’s no visible change, and those details are generally invisible themselves. However, they gain quite a bit of sexual skill and ability, and may, as I said before, develop into either Youko or Inari in time, both powerful Fox Demons with opposite dispositions. It’s something I’ve been considering for myself, but we might be able to take that journey together.”  
  
“Huh. Not sure how I feel about it. Those are both pretty tied up in religion right?”  
  
“The Inari and the Youko? They tend to be, yes, although it isn’t absolute.”  
  
“Hmm… What’s the last option?”  
  
She turned to look at me, eyebrow raised.  
  
“Why, Wighthood, of course. I’ve already discussed why that is more difficult now that you are both Demon and Shoggoth. You are vexingly difficult to kill, my darling. The sad truth is, by my estimation, there are very few ways to make you any hotter, and each is the work of months for what amounts to admittedly incremental improvement.”  
  
Uh. What? “Wighthood? How does that make me hotter, though?” I asked. “I can’t bathe Akubra in a hot pool of Wight ectoplasm.”  
  
“Bathe Akubra…? You…” Her eyes widened, and she brought the palm of her hand to her face. “Hotter like warmer, not… not hotter like more attractive. My apologies, I got excited by the prospective challenge of an incredibly difficult problem, and so managed to miss the obvious.”  
  
Oh. That’s… that’s a pretty easy mistake, I guess. Should’ve been clearer. I thought some of those options were a little weird, but enough of them made at least a little sense that…  
  
Wait… ‘An incredibly difficult problem’?  
  
“You really think I’m that pretty? It’d take you months of work? You, Faust von Frankenstein, sorceress supreme? All that effort, and you’d only manage to make me a little prettier at most?”  
  
She’d already started blushing, from realizing her mistake, but laying her words back out like that only deepened the blush to supernova levels.  
  
“Well… It is only… Lyle, it’s just that… You are…” She got real quiet, and let out a breath, hanging her head. “…You are my dreams come alive, Lyle. Ever have you been so.”  
  
I didn’t know what to say. She did, though. “I prefer women, that much is true, but you are one yourself now, and so… I find there is little I can yet imagine that you do not already fulfill as you are, and all that I can truly do is give you more power to express yourself with, more options to allow your heart to shine brighter, rather than actually add anything of value to you.”  
  
I walked over, wrapping her in the biggest hug I could manage without engulfing her.  
  
“I love you, you know that, Sally?” I asked.  
  
“Mhmm...” She muttered into my neck. “I want you dead, Lyle, but it is a selfish, meaningless desire. I have been thwarted by circumstance, and I do not appreciate it. I will have my vengeance on reality, and allow you to be the woman I foresaw in my imagination, but in truth, you are as close to perfect as I could dare demand even now. I am lucky, and I love you too.”  
  
I held Faust closer, tighter, just showing her I appreciated her.  
  
Akubra could wait a little longer.

.oOo.

After a few moments more, Faust finally broke the hug. “Much as I would like to continue, my dear, I believe you have a date.”  
  
Ah… crap.  
  
“Yeah, I do. Any chance you have anything to make me… _warmer_?” I asked, chagrinned.  
  
She ‘tut tut’ed. “This is something you really ought to be able to manage on your own, Lyle. As a Demon, you have no small amount of magical ability yourself, and a Slime should have some semblance of sway over this anyway. However, I know that as an Alp, you lack instinctual control, and I do appreciate your reliance on me, even for these simple matters…”  
  
I hadn’t really thought about that. I’d been pretty wrapped up in the significant physical aspects of my monsterizaton, but other things had changed too. I’d never had much magical potential before. It was a lot to handle at once.  
  
“Do you maybe have something like what you did for Blackberry?” I asked her.  
  
“I do, rather, I will momentarily. It is a simple thing to create, however…” she paused, looking me in the eye, “I would request you pay attention to the way it feels to use. It will not last long, and while once or twice to help you out is no trouble, I cannot set aside my own projects to micromanage your temperature indefinitely, my love.”  
  
“I understand,” I said. And really, I did. Faust was pushing the bounds of possibility, and somehow I doubted ‘warm something up’ was anything more than a cantrip, for her.  
  
She turned slightly, and held out a hand behind her towards the table she’d been working at. A small glass ball shot out of the detritus on one of her workstations, coming to a quick stop in her hand. By the time she brought it around to me, it was already slightly glowing, lit from inside by a yellowish red light. Not orange, somehow. It registered to me as yellow _and_ red. The warmth of summer, the flash of fire. Magic, I guess.  
  
“Thanks, Sally.”  
  
“It is no trouble, dear heart,” She turned away, but then turned back, and eyebrow raised, “However, a question?”  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“I believe I instructed you to strip. Why keep your panties on? Are you truly so embarrassed by your body?”  
  
I looked down.  
  
“Ugh. These damn things again. What is their problem?” It was her pink frilly underthings again, back to haunt me. I started to take them off, manually. “They keep showing up. I think they’re stuck in my head. I used to picture you in them all the time, they’re the ones I caught you in by accident, remember?”  
  
“I recognize them, yes. You can’t simply dissolve them?” She asked, curious.  
  
“No. They have a mind of their own, somehow.”  
  
She took in a sharp breath, but didn’t say anything.  
  
I tossed them aside, Faust’s eyes following them closely as I did.  
  
“They’re still there,” she said, and she sounded nervous.  
  
“They’ll disappear in a minute or two. It helps if I put something else on.” I called up my flesh tone panties, as well as the wrapping I’d been using to tame my chest somewhat. As an Alp, I wasn’t that big, though there was a chance that’d change as I got used to things. Either way, feeling my chest shaking all the time was distracting, especially with the sensitivity they had. Once they were secure, I called my robes up, and watched as the pink panties finally deigned to boil away.  
  
“You said you ‘used to’ picture me in them?” Faust asked.  
  
“…Yeah, back before all this. Hard not to. I always liked you.” She beamed at me. “It’s a fantasy that’s been coming back lately, though. Not sure why, when you’re right here, available, and naked to boot.”  
  
Her smile faded some, and that nervous look was back.  
  
“Maybe it’d go away if you tried them on?” I mused. “Like singing a song to get it unstuck from your head. I’m sure you’d look great.”  
  
“Ah… I’m not certain I still have them; I will have to see.”  
  
Oh. Yeah, I don’t know why that didn’t occur to me.  
  
I nodded. “If not, maybe we can find a replica somewhere? I really like them on you. Fond memories.” Her eyes darted down to my hands, then back to my face.  
  
“Sally, are you okay? You’re acting kinda odd.”  
  
She nodded curtly, turning back towards her table, and floating away.  
  
“I will see you later, Lyle,” she said, over her shoulder.  
  
Huh. Alright then. I guess she _did_ say she was busy. Not only with the Mummy’s curse, but I guess she wants to be a Foxfire ghost thing too? I forget what they were called. Kitsune-something.  
  
There were some things for me to consider, too, as I left the room, closing the door. Just because her ideas had stemmed from misunderstanding didn’t make them useless. For one, I liked the idea of being able to float effortlessly, like Faust could, and mastering Dark Energy sounded really helpful. I don’t know what I’d do with it myself, but Faust would definitely benefit. That we’d need a husband first was… unfortunate, but that, or something similar, was coming eventually, like it or not. Either way, incorporating Dark Matter traits would be something to do after she’d killed me, since I doubted becoming vaguely elemental would make it any _easier_.  
  
It was entirely possible I could fly _already_ , though, if I managed to work out how to use my wings. For now, they mostly stayed folded up around my legs, a little like a skirt. As for getting a Slime core from a Dark Slime… it might help me control my form better, if nothing else. The rest…? About the only other thing I agreed with was becoming better to eat. Something about that was so appealing I didn’t even care that Humpty Egg jelly, at least, would mostly benefit my future… husband. I should be the most delicious food anyone’s ever had. I should be all they want to eat! **I should be-!**  
  
…I should be getting to the bath house.  
  
Akubra was already there when I walked in, over by one of the private baths. So much the better, I didn’t like the big one _anyway_. I tossed the glass sphere up into the air, catching it again in the other hand. That was when I noticed I was holding those stupid panties again. How long had I been doing that? Ugh. I dropped them to the ground, and focused on pulling the glass sphere inside myself. I ought to be able to use it just as well in there as out here.  
  
“Hey, sorry to keep you waiting.” I said.  
  
She turned and looked my way, smiling, though to say she looked _at me_ would be to ignore the way she always had that far-off look in her eye. She was still willowy as always, but having stripped bare, it was easy to see she was actually a little too thin. She didn’t look like she ate very often. Almost sickly. She was also freckled, like Amy was, and not just with her tiny mushrooms. It was odd seeing her without her hat on, though she had it in her hands instead. She was using it like a basket, and it looked like it was full of things like soaps and oils. Her hair, much more visible with hat in hand, was greenish brown.  
  
“Are you okay?” I asked, “You look… have you eaten?”  
  
She seemed to ignore my question, responding instead to what I’d said first. “One waits as long as one must for her family to arrive, and is happy when they do. Your first time is very important, you know. Doing everything you can to make it perfect, make it mean something can be difficult, but it’s worthwhile. Whatever sacrifices you make in the meantime are worth it.”  
  
“I’m excited too, but I didn’t leave you waiting that long, did I? I tried to be quick.”  
  
“You arrived as fast as you could, and in the best way, but… I must admit the wait felt like years. Although, I know for certain you had good reason, truly, I nearly came to hunt you down myself.”  
  
“I’m really sorry, Akubra, I was talking to Faust about our bath. I promise it’ll be worth the wait. …But you have eaten, right? At least, I fed you recently. I… know I can’t do that anymore, but you must have something worked out in town, right?”  
  
She smiled at me. “It warms my heart to hear you so concerned for me, so very worth the wait. There _are_ services in town for feeding those without husband at hand, it’s true. I know of one I am eager to show you. But… I could hardly use them myself while I knew I was waiting for you, could I?”  
  
“I… guess not?” It would’ve been kinda odd if she ran off for a quick meal right before our bath. “But if you were really that hungry, I’d’ve understood.”  
  
Her smile widened, a little. “So kindhearted. But I have my tea. Sustenance enough for the wait. Though… perhaps we can see that restaurant together soon?”  
  
I grimaced. “That’s something I’m going to need to think about, yeah. If… If you know a good place, that’s better than running around blindly.”  
  
“Splendid. It’s a date.”  
  
Despite myself, I couldn’t help but smile at that.  
  
It was when I opened the door to the private room, though, that the grin slid off my face.  
  
“Oh right. These things.”  
  
The tub in the room was something like cast iron, although given I thought that was bad for fairies, I doubted that was what it actually was. It was well made, all one piece, artisanal work, intricately carved, sized for two, and smooth as butter inside.  
  
It was also ugly and dumb.  
  
“Akubra, give me a hand, would you?” I leaned down against the tub and shoved. It was heavy, but with her help I pushed it against the wall, getting the stupid thing out of the way.  
  
“You deserve much better.” I said, grumpily. At least this one I could move. Although… the other one didn’t bother me as much, for whatever reason, except for how much it could hold.  
  
She stepped back, and I closed my eyes, focusing. I pictured a tub much like the one we’d moved just now, actually, but it was better, _I_ was better. I felt my clothing begin to shift and slide, slowly oozing down into shape. It was hard work, making the curve of the bowl, the intricate little carvings, the little feet that kept it at a nice height, and off of the ground.  
  
I managed it though, and when I opened my eyes, proud as could be, I was sitting on my knees in a _real_ tub, not that shitty imitator. Akubra clapped excitedly, and I beamed at her.  
  
She set her hat down on a small table in the room, and reached into it, pulling out a bottle of translucent, oily, red-brown liquid.  
  
“What’s that?” I asked.  
  
“Jasmine tea oil,” She replied, “I’m afraid I never bathe without it. You don’t mind? The smell is divine once it’s steeped into the water. Very relaxing.”  
  
That made a startling amount of sense. Of course she bathed in tea, why wouldn’t she?  
  
I started to nod, but that reminded me. “Right, the water.”  
  
This part should be easy. I change how liquid I am all the time.  
  
I closed my eyes again, picturing the tub filling up with a slick, purple liquid, bubbling, warm, and soupy.  
  
The tub started to fill, but then wobbled, only to collapse in on itself, and I fell flat on my ass, splashing all over the room.  
  
“Shit.” I said, pulling myself back together. “I’m… not sure I can do this. Me, the tub, the water, the temperature… it’s too much. I can’t hold it.”  
  
Akubra knelt down, cupping my chin in her hand. That was nice. Nice enough to cut through the pout I was developing. “You’ll succeed sooner or later, Lyle, I know it.”  
  
“Yeah... I… Maybe. But… I’ve made you wait long enough.” I took in a deep breath, bracing myself. “Let’s… Fuck. Let’s move the tub back. I’d rather be the water, if I have to choose.”  
  
“We _should_ fuck, yes, although… we can leave the tub there, I think. I have my own I prefer to use, if you’re sure.”  
  
Heh.  
  
I got up, following her to one of the other private rooms. At least I wouldn’t be submitting to _that_ tub. It was dumb and ugly.  
  
She opened the door, and inside, well…  
  
I don’t know what I was expecting her tub to look like, but a giant tea cup wasn’t it. Which was silly, because of course that’s what it would be. It looked like a tight fit for two, but I didn’t mind that at all.  
  
I stepped up into the teacup, trying not to hate it too much for having been her favorite bath, since I still needed it for now. I closed my eyes again, focusing once more on that slick, purple liquid, bubbling, warm, and soupy. This time, it came easily, and I sunk down in to a full cup of boiling hot tea up to my ‘hips’.  
  
The whole room smelled like jasmine, deeply floral, and I soon found out why, because rather than the little oil bottle she’d brought, Akubra took a pot off a small stove burner, and poured the contents into me. The feeling was hard to describe. Sort of like how, when you’d eaten something extremely hot and filling, like a large bowl of fresh pasta, you could feel it filling your stomach through the heat radiating out, and coursing through your body.  
  
“Did you brew this?” I asked. “The taste is incredible~”  
  
She let out a pleased hum, but that was all. She emptied her hat of its contents, putting it back on her head. She grabbed something off the small table, where she’d store all the bits and bobs, and she stepped up into the cup. Having her legs inside me was just as entrancing as I’d expected, it was everything I wanted. I’d done this a little with Amy, in the heat of the moment, but Akubra was _asking_ for it.  
  
I immediately went to work, cleaning sweat and grime, scrubbing away at the dead skin between her toes, and as much as I sort of wanted it to feel weird, alien, and unsettling, it was instead so, so _right._ Parts of me that were entirely liquid licked at the souls of her feet, eliciting a pleased, surprised gasp, before she controlled herself.  
  
“It’s been some time since I shaved my legs, Lyle.”  
  
I didn’t to hear any more than that. Her desires were obvious to me, I could taste them nearly as clearly as the salt of her sweat, the oddly umami flavors of her mushrooms as I polished them too, and the warm, safe feeling of her skin. I went to work, diving into her pores with a mind I hadn’t realized was able to distinguish each and every one, lovingly clearing away any dirt before it could blemish her skin, and relishing the permission to clear the hair away as well, because it had a taste I doubt anyone else would have caught, so sugary and light, airy and fluffy like a spider’s web.  
  
“Mmmm… Good girl, Lyle.”  
  
I shuddered uncontrollably, my body briefly c o m i n g a p a r t. She was _pleased_ with me. That was **_everything_** _._  
  
I barely pulled myself together again, breathing deeply, feeling so amazing I wanted to scream, but this wasn’t about me, I was here for her to use.  
  
Baths.  
  
Didn’t.  
  
Scream.  
  
She grabbed me by my halo-like circular horn, which circled my head just above my hair like a crown, and she gently pulled me up, higher and higher till I was level with her. As she lifted her hand, I saw what she’d grabbed from the table, a tall, thick mushroom, bigger than any I’d ever seen, and I had an idea of what it was for.  
  
“No, no…” I couldn’t help but murmur from my mouths, as I kissed her everywhere I could reach, “Let me, _let me_ , use me me _me!”_  
  
“Oh I will, sweetie, I promise. But first… I grew this just for you, plucked from my own body and nurtured with care, and you simply _must_ be hungry by now~, so… open wide, Lyle.”  
  
My mouth hung open thoughtlessly, disobedience a foreign concept to me now. I would serve her however she wanted me, it was so _fulfilling_.  
  
She hummed happily, moving the mushroom out of view. “Good girl, Lyle.”  
  
I burbled and shook, but managed to stay standing, probably only because she still held me by my horn with her other hand.  
  
“But no self-respecting Mamono eats with their mouth~”  
  
My eyes widened, and I came back to myself just in time to feel the mushroom, unnaturally rigid, press its way inside me in a way I was horrified to find _absolutely **delightful**_.  
  
The horror, though, faded as fast as it rose, while the delight only swelled as it pressed further and further, shoving and pressing outward against every inch of my slimy, dripping vagina, while Akubra’s hand teased at my outer folds so, so gently. I wanted to die. I wanted to _live_. I wanted this, whatever it was, forever and ever.  
  
And that was only the first thrust.  
  
They continued, and with each slow, torturous journey, the pleasure only increased, gradually as it slid in and out, and then by leaps and bounds, as Akubra’s fingers came in reach of me again. Finally, after several glacial circuits, I’d had enough. I couldn’t keep this wretched pace, and my hips started to rock of their own accord, slowly at first, pausing for Akubra’s touch, but each time she pulled away, I came back faster and faster, just as hungry for her touch as I was for this indescribable _fullness_ , until I was crashing into her fingers, moaning helplessly and incoherently.  
  
Then, just when I felt like I was finally ready for release, she pulled her hand away, leaving the mushroom deep inside me. I let out an absolutely piteous sound.  
  
She chuckled, but I only kept whining. She grabbed my hand leading it down to my crotch, and making me grasp the rod myself.  
  
“I want this to special for the both of us, Lyle,” she whispered, “so don’t stop, or I’ll get out of the bath.”  
  
Out? Get out!? But! But! I hadn’t finished cleaning her yet!  
  
“Oh? Then you’ll have to make sure you take care of yourself, too. You can do that for me, can’t you?”  
  
I made a sound more like a squeal than an affirmation, but as I did my best to slowly, clumsily fuck myself with the odd… dildo, she let go of my horn, patting my head again. She lifted her toes so that her heels were all that touched the base of the tub, and with a slight backwards lean, gracefully slid down into the tub, submerging herself entirely.  
  
I made sure to keep rhythm, though it was hard. Mmm… so incredibly hard~. Hah hah hah…  
  
But there was something else to focus on, and I rallied myself. I was _needed_. I flowed across her body, scrubbing away hair, and grime, and little particles of random things, trees, fruits, buildings, and even strangers. I flowed into her ears, taking the wax, so bitter, but complex, her nose, which was clear, Mamono were rarely sick, her mouth, cleaning in between her every tooth and sealing every tiny wound, clearing away the blood as well. I took the time to caress her tongue, lovingly, gently, with several of my own, before flowing down her throat.  
  
I kept thrusting. It was entrancing. It was so, so good. Wooow…  
  
I wanted her _everything_. Her eyes, I cleared of crust, her nails, buffed and cleaned, Her belly button, even. I left nothing out. I flowed across her head, gently scouring her scalp, and coating each hair individually, consuming the dead ones, trimming the split ends, and clearing the way for new hairs to grow.  
  
I was still humping the mushroom. I wasn’t sure I _could_ stop.  
  
With nothing left to clean, I finally focused on pleasuring her, caressing her tits, teasing her nipples, and piecing her pussy and ass both, vibrating all the while. She thrashed and churned, but I could somehow tell it was ecstasy, not fear, and I redoubled my efforts, kissing and licking her everywhere I could fit a mouth. I met myself inside her at her stomach, and I finally filled her completely, spilling into her lungs, taking care to make sure she got the air she needed all the while.  
  
I didn’t _want_ to stop. I wanted to fuck this thing. I loved it. It was the best thing I’d ever felt.  
  
Her every inch conquered, I started in with the oil, massaging her everywhere with it. Inexpertly at first, but I could feel her every twitch, inside and out, and it didn’t take me long to work out exactly how she wanted it, which motions to use where, how fast, and when to switch. I pampered her and it was the most spectacular privilege I’d ever been allowed, to worship her like this, to ruin every other definition of bathtime for the rest of her life, to make her **need** me to feel this again. She’d wanted this, and I would deliver it for her so completely that she’d never want anything _else_ ever again.  
  
Mine. I thrusted. Mine. And again. Mine. Again. Mine. **Again.** **_MINE._**  
  
She came freely, still writhing and twirling completely submerged, and I lapped it up, the sudden realization that I’d satisfied pushing me over the edge as well, coating the mushroom in slick goo-like cum, which it seemed eager to consume, while my screams of joy and loyalty echoed loudly in the tiny, enclosed room.  
  
I sank down into the tub up to my shoulders, somehow still fucking myself with the mushroom, although I could only tell where my vagina was because it was being fucked, the rest of me, below my tits, was nothing but bathwater.  
  
I brought Akubra up, resting her head on my chest.  
  
She just made contented noises, as I lightly stroked at her across her body.  
  
We laid like that a while, just enjoying the heat of the bath and our shared closeness, as well as a little masturbation, but eventually, she looked up at me, bleary-eyed. She opened her mouth, and I spilled out as she tried to speak. It was really, really cute. She was stuffed so _full_.  
  
I took pity on her and cleared out a little, not knowing how to help her speak while never leaving, though I resolved to figure it out.  
  
“Mmm… Lyle~ My hair? Brush? Please…” That seemed to be all she had the energy for, sinking back against my chest, but that was more than enough.  
  
She **_needed me_** to brush her hair, so I did.  
  
It was very simple to form something so small, and even easier to time the strokes of the brush with the strokes of the cock. She nuzzled into me, so helpless without me, but luckily, I was here to care for her.  
  
Slowly, slowly, I drained the water back inside myself, coaxing her body across mine as it was revealed, and setting a bit of my slime from inside her against the end of the mushroom. Hardening it into more of a tentacle, as I thrust in, she felt it pull back, and the reverse as well, thrusting into her as the mushroom left my body. We stayed close enough to grind against each other too, and it was miraculous that I could somehow discover even deeper depths of pleasure like that, although the thrusts were lazy and cozy now, rather than frantic.  
  
She bucked her hips slowly in rhythm with my own, still nuzzling my chest, as I spent a little time to form a towel from myself, and patted her dry, removing the excess jasmine tea oil, and finally getting to eat that too. It was exactly as good as I’d hoped, only nibbling at the edges of it, and when the last of it was gone, I let out a contented sigh.  
  
I think that went pretty well.

.oOo.

I carried Akubra past the book case and into her room, navigating hat racks, plush brown couches that gave me a few ideas, and more book cases, finally arriving at her bed, which was squirreled away in the back corner. I thought that maybe the book cases had been rearranged since I last was here. Was this place developing into a maze? What would my room look like, after I’d been in it for years?  
  
I had questions for her, but they could wait for now. There were _a lot_ of burning questions, though. Hugely important. I guess… just one couldn’t hurt.  
  
“Akubra?” I asked, at a whisper.  
  
“Mmm?” Her tired, distant eyes blink owlishly at me.  
  
“I… forgot to ask you. How… how do you like your hat washed? So I know for next time. I didn’t want to hurt it by treating it wrong, or interrupt things to ask.”  
  
She lifted her head up, and kissed me on the nose, then giggled.  
  
“You’re cute. Good night, Lyle.”  
  
I let out a small sigh. No answers here.  
  
“Goodnight, Akubra.” I laid her down on her bed, a few tentacles navigating her blankets, pulling them back. Rather than a mattress, she had soft, loamy soil inside her bed frame. She sunk down into it a little, rolling onto her side. I pulled the covers over her, and bent down, kissing her forehead.  
  
It _was_ getting late, but I was still kinda feeling energetic from earlier. I felt clear-headed, better and more optimistic than I had in a while. I left Akubra’s room, a tinge of regret that I wasn’t still in there with her, keeping her warm and snug. However, at least for now, I could only do so much, and there were other women in my life.  
  
Charlotte had been out in the main room when I’d walked through, and she was still there now. Samael, who’d grabbed one of the other rooms in the house, was sitting in the circle of couches opposite her, just watching her eat. It looked like one of Beeps’ spicy veggie stews, one of my personal favorites. Samael I was happy to see, I’d been meaning to talk to her, and Charlotte, well…  
  
“Is there any more of that?” I asked, gesturing at the bowl.  
  
“Yes.” Beeps called, from her room. She sounded slightly satisfied.  
  
She walked out into the living room, carrying a still-steaming bowl, and set it down on the table, at a right angle to Charlotte and Samael both.  
  
“Thanks, Beeps. I love this stuff.” It was so chunky and salty, a cavalcade of competing textures. I sat down as she nodded, heading back to her room.  
  
“Oh,” I added, “I moved your ‘friend’ into my room, earlier.” Couldn’t leave it out an about while I was away with Akubra.  
  
“Appreciated.” She shut her door, and the muffled tinkering sounds resumed.  
  
I took another bite of that excellent stew, just savoring the taste and sensations. Every one of my senses had been enhanced by my transformation, and the nuances of Beeps’ spicework was much more apparent. The depth of flavor was incredible, hitting in waves.  
  
I cleared my throat.  
  
Charlotte ignored me, but Samael looked my way, at least.  
  
“So…” This was kinda awkward. “I wanted to apologize.”  
  
Charlotte grunted.  
  
“I was… trying not to be like that so blatantly, but… it is a part of who I am now. I know you’re probably not comfortable with it. I’m not always either. But… I hope it’s clear that’s not _all_ I am, at least?”  
  
She didn’t react.  
  
“She’s being difficult.” Samael said. “She gets like this sometimes. She’s stubborn and spiteful. We train that into them, you know, helps them survive. When you’re willing to do anything to hurt your enemy, and you never give up… sometimes you pull out a win in an impossible situation.”  
  
I turned to her, interested.  
  
“Of course, it sorta makes them sticks-in-the-mud, too, but… that’s also by design, really. She’s very sweet when she’s on your side, I promise.” Samael looked at her like Beeps looked at _me_ , and I hurt for her. This couldn’t be easy. I tried to imagine having Beeps or Sally against me like this, surly, angry, and unwilling to even acknowledge me as myself.  
  
Then I decided I didn’t want to imagine that at all, thanks.  
  
Charlotte merely kept eating. I did as well, it was good food.  
  
“Why are you even doing that?” She asked, finally, glaring at my stew.  
  
“Eating, you mean?” I asked, “Beeps made it for me, and it tastes good. It’s one of my favorites, actually. Do I need another reason?”  
  
She scoffed, “I know what your favorite food is, Lyle, that’s not it.”  
  
My breath hitched, and she smiled a little.  
  
“I… I haven’t… I’m not ready.”  
  
She looked at me, incredulous. “Really?”  
  
“Yeah.” I set the bowl down. “It’s a little scary, you know? To know there’s something that… that’s so good everyone like you who’s ever tried it never went back. I can eat other stuff, but… I get hungry faster than I can reasonably eat. Slowly, sure, but… everything else? It’s only a stopgap.”  
  
Charlotte’s gaze softened a bit.  
  
“It’s coming eventually. I know it is. I know you won’t believe me, but… I’ve seen Faust, Beeps, and Blackberry all have their first… meal. I was a part of it. It really _didn’t_ change them, but… they all still want more. That’s sort of reassuring, having seen them on both sides of it, but I still…”  
  
I looked down at the stew.  
  
“I’ve starved before. I know you have, too. I don’t know about you, but I don’t ever want to feel that again. But I’m still scared. It’s been a lot to deal with at once.”  
  
“I should have been there.” She said. “To protect you both. This is my fault.”  
  
I smiled at her, sadly. “I don’t blame you.”  
  
“I’m sorry, Lyle, I appreciate the sentiment, but you’re compromised.”  
  
“Yeah… But I’m still Lyle, you know?”  
  
She looked away.  
  
“I mean, look at Blackberry, if you don’t believe me. Does she really strike you as some kind of master manipulator, feigning innocence to trick you into bed? I know your instincts must be better than that, they’d have to be, to get you as far as you’ve come. You’re a professional. You have to know that she really is just… _like that_.”  
  
Charlotte stood, suddenly. “I’m going to bed.”  
  
Before she could, though, the front door burst in.  
  
…Oh great. This is terrible timing.  
  
 _Abstinence Obscenity Fuck-Parade Magenta_ was a powerful Demon of some renown, mostly for her role as a member of the Dream Team, a group of Mamono that created and distributed artisanal wet dreams to the general public. You could even hire them to make something bespoke, if you had the clout.  
  
She came from a long line of Demon’s Demons, real exemplars of the species. In fact, one of her Aunts was actually _THE_ Demon who’d posed for _THE_ picture of a Demon in the Wandering Traveler’s Monster Girl Encyclopedia II, if rumors could be believed. Her family was old, widespread, and very influential.  
  
As for Magenta herself, she was no less attractive than her Aunt, at least, if the rumors were true. Her eyes were black, with electric blue irises, and her hair was dyed acid green at the moment, though it had been neon purple when we’d met. She had the light blue skin common to Demons (who weren’t also part Shoggoth), and her horns, a deep black leading into red tips, were scythe-like semi-circles, wickedly curved, which grew from just above her long, pointed ears. She was wearing dark, reddish-black lipstick today, and she generally kept her large black wings flared out, aggressively taking up space, while her long, thick, spade-like tail moved expressively when she spoke; sometimes beckoning, sometimes pointing, and sometimes leading your eyes dangerous places.  
  
Her tail was covered in jeweled metal bangles near the end that clinked and clanged as she moved, though they never fell too far up her tail. I had a suspicion that when she got excited, and blood flooded to her tail, engorging it slightly, that they were held in place, and all the complicated little bejeweled textures probably had another use. I’d probably find out first hand, eventually. She also wore long fabric sleeves, and socks that came up nearly to her hips. These she changed often, depending on her mood. Today, it was floating pink hearts on a white background, each covered in what I could only assume was meant to be cum, dripping off as they floated up and down the socks and sleeves.  
  
However, besides that, she wore very little, only scraps and straps of cloth and black leather designed to fall off with the barest whim, and placed to tantalize, rather than preserve her modesty. With so much of her skin exposed, it was clear she was covered essentially everywhere in purple tattoos, or more accurately, pleasure runes, which enhanced every sensation to sexually exciting levels. She had several bruises that looked vaguely like the ones aggressive kissing could cause, although these were larger, and ring-like in shape. Lastly, there was a chain link collar was around her neck, with dog-tags hanging off. I couldn’t read the inscription, even this close, which was odd, given how my eyesight had improved.  
  
“Lyle, Lyle, Lyle~,” Magenta sang, as she swaggered in, “Not a week passed since your rebirth, and you’ve already caught yourself a capital ‘h’ Hero? I came as soon as I heard.”  
  
“It’s not-” I said, but she cut me off.  
  
“Once I’d cleaned myself up, though, I just knew I had to head over and congratulate you myself, you little minx. You’re even better at this than I could have hoped!”  
  
“It’s not like that, Magenta.” I said, firmly. She smiled at me, indulgently, and I tried to hide how attractive I found her, how I felt naturally inclined to listen to her, as the Demon who’d… essentially indoctrinated me. It was a strong, magical, spiritual connection. In Demonic terms, we were something like family, though the exact nature of the bond was still unformed.  
  
“Oh, _of course_ it’s not,” she said, looking right at Charlotte, then winking at me. “Is this her, then? Quite the specimen.” She looked from her back to me again, “I brought you a few things, maybe spark a few ideas~.” She held up a bag, full to bursting. Full with what, exactly, I couldn’t say, though I had my guesses, and at least one of the things in the bag was a dildo the size of a baseball bat. Easily identified, as it stuck out of the bag quite obnoxiously.  
  
Charlotte, for her part, stomped swiftly over into her room, and slammed the door shut.  
  
Magenta’s grin, if anything, only grew wider. “Oh, don’t be like that, babe, gimme a chance! I promise you we’ll get along _just fine_.”  
  
The lock on the door slid loudly into place.  
  
“Heh. Something I said, you think?” She sauntered on over to the couch, sitting where Charlotte had sat, and immediately started in on her food, still unfinished.  
  
“This is good shit, Lyle.” She said, seriously. “My compliments to the chef. Could be a little _saltier_ , though. Luckily, I have just the thing.”  
  
She pulled out a small vial of- Nope.  
  
Nope nope nope.  
  
Not yet.  
  
I closed my eyes and plugged my nose.  
  
Ugh. I really was grateful to her for helping to save me, and I honestly kinda liked her, in a way, but this was really, really bad timing.  
  
It was going to be…  
  
Interesting.

.oOo.

Magenta Interlewd

Lyle’s place was much like I’d left it only a few days before, and Lyle herself seemed much more stable. I’d have been disappointed if she weren’t. Some shock was expected, but sometimes Alps could mope for what felt like weeks before they so much as looked at themselves naked.  
  
Some of the Succubi I’d made had seen her around town, and were happy to report she seemed to be adjusting well. Their eagerness to please and cute, lascivious demeanors were almost enough to distract me from the bitterness of what they _could have been_ , if they’d just held on a little longer.  
  
Like Lyle had, to a point.  
  
I didn’t begrudge her too much for needing that final push. As an Alp, her circumstances were a little different from the girls I usually trained, and she’d had the bad luck to get drawn into a harem with a Shoggoth and a Lich, so it wasn’t surprising her mind had been… strained.  
  
Not that I’d trained Lyle as much as I’d have liked. She still came out Demon in the end, rather than Succubus, or something else, so clearly I’d made an impact, but… well, with circumstances what they were, I couldn’t have done much better. If I’d sequestered her in my studio while I taught her the ropes, like I usually did with trainees, I’d have had several angry Mamono at my door in short order, including a surprisingly dangerous Lich.  
  
No sense getting the studio blown up.  
  
It had been a stroke of luck finding an Alp before her change at all, I couldn’t really be picky about it. I’d been looking a long time, but it was harder than I’d thought. They had an annoying tendency to turn before I could get them home and properly set things up.  
  
As I finished the fucking _delicious_ soup, and set the bowl down, Lyle opened her eyes again.  
  
Now that she could see, I made a point to look at her, smiling lazily, one eyebrow arched.  
  
“Really?” I asked.  
  
Lyle, curse her heart, pulled up what had to be her best assertive aura. Expression, posture, the works. She hardly managed ‘grumpy’, but at least she tried.  
  
“I’m allowed to go at my own pace.” She said.  
  
“True, true. I know you’ll get there.” I replied, still smiling. “You made it this far, after all. You needed a little help, sure, but you had more to deal with, and I couldn’t get you ready like I’d have liked to.”  
  
“Oh, did you turn Lyle?” Samael asked, and wasn’t she interesting? Buck naked, with the black feathered wings of our fallen Dark sisters, she was matted and sticky all over. Her face was deeply flushed, and the nearby bottle would have explained why, if her breath hadn’t given it away. She was completely drunk, though she hid it well. “Magenta, wasn’t it?”  
  
I nodded, “That’s me. Lyle was… a group effort, though.” That might be stretching things, but Demons don’t fall out of the sky, and Lyle didn’t have the temperament of a natural talent. “You’re Samael, right? I heard about you. Dark Valkyries aren’t rare, exactly, but they don’t fall every day.”  
  
Samael looked down and to the side. “Yeah…” Was she seriously upset about it?  
  
I frowned. “Really? Not you too! What _is it_ with this house?”  
  
Between the freakish Lich, the rare-as-shit Automaton, the Holstaur I’d eventually recognized as Fran Tastic, Blackberry, and Lyle herself, a self-conscious Dark Valkyrie would be a bridge too far.  
  
That’s not even considering Akubra.  
  
“Oh, no, I’m quite happy about all this,” Samael said, brightly. “It’s been enlightening. The first time I tried fucking for myself, I knew I never wanted to go back.”  
  
I grinned, feeling that familiar rush of listening to the freshly fallen. “Finally, someone’s speaking sense! What’s with the mopey face, then?”  
  
“It’s… this rapture has kept me from someone I care about.” She looked at the door, the one Charlotte had slammed shut, and then loudly locked. “I trained her too well, it seems.”  
  
I felt my eyes widen as I leaned in, “ _No!_ ” I said, and it came out breathy and scandalized, “You’re hot for the cranky one? That’s a raw deal.” Normally I’d offer my help, but she was swimming in options, and Lyle had already staked her claim on Charlotte.  
  
Her first turning. I was so proud. I hadn’t even had to push.  
  
“She’s not _cranky_ ,” Samael said, “just… principled. I’ll convince her yet. I must. She means… the heavens to me.”  
  
“Yeah?” Lyle asked, “You guys trained together for years, I guess that makes sense.”  
  
Samael turned to look at her. “I am, or rather was, an Angel of the Chief God. I have trained many heroes. Charlotte was the first to take it farther. She is my most cherished friend. There is often a distance between Angels and Heroes, and for good reason. Angels are technically Mamono, and can so sometimes fall unnoticed.”  
  
Hah. You’re super gay, girl.  
  
“But…” Lyle said, “Charlotte was used to training with Beeps.”  
  
Samael nodded. “That distance was cast aside from the start. She has a way of looking at the world… she sees the beauty in things I had never noticed. Little things. The grass, the insects, the leaves in the air, the majesty of creation. As an Angel, that appreciation drew me in. It was that same eye for detail that made her an unstoppable Heroine. Her mind never stops.”  
  
Super, _super_ gay.  
  
“How’d they get you, anyway?” I asked. “I saw that fight in the colosseum. I know they didn’t get past _her_.” ‘That fight’ had been quite the sight. When I heard the lady knight was spoken for, I was devastated. Woman like that’s a rare treasure, and offering her as a treat for Lyle would have been delightful.  
  
Of course, learning Lyle’d done the speaking for herself softened the blow considerably. I hadn’t lied, the news had brought me to climax the moment I really understood what I’d heard. She’d come so far along the road to the truth.  
  
I shook myself out of that as Samael started to answer.  
  
She breathed out through her nose. “It’s somewhat embarrassing. I… one of my joys as an Angel was to teach the children of the church. I am quite skilled at… puppet shows. I enjoy them.”  
  
Puppet shows? That’s _lame_.  
  
“Really? That’s kinda cool.” Lyle said.  
  
I fought the urge to snort. She was a doofus, sure, but she _had it,_ I knew she did. Simply put, she could be dumb, if she could make me _cum_.  
  
Samael smiled at Lyle. It was earnest, no hint of lasciviousness at all. Turned my stomach. “You think so?” She said, “I’m glad. I was worried I’d be giving it up, moving here.”  
  
“I mean,” Lyle replied, “this is a city of artists. You might find more support than you’d think.”  
  
“One can hope.” She shook her head. “In any case, one day, a man of the cloth came to town, a fellow puppeteer. He was rather skilled, and we traded tips and tricks for crafting and presenting. Over time, through the course of weeks, I came to trust him, and he, in turn, opened up to me. Cautiously, he offered to show me his masterwork. A life-sized puppet.”  
  
“Oh.” Lyle said.  
  
It _was_ pretty clear what came next. But that’s how infiltration works. No one can keep their guard up literally all the time, all you have to do is take it slow. Mamono across the globe get their husbands that way, just walk into town, wait long enough suspicion fades, then make their move. It always works eventually, and we have all the time in the world.  
  
“Obvious in retrospect, yes.” Samael continued, “But… it was weeks of buildup. I let my fascination with the idea blind me.”  
  
She paused, and a slight smile spread across her face. I knew it pretty well, I’d seen it take hold in… what, hundreds of women by now? My fingers slid down to my cunt completely on instinct, stroking and teasing slowly. I was a Demon, we literally got off on this shit, this is what we were _for,_ and I’d never seen the need to restrain that.  
  
I kept the wet noises down, though, didn’t want to miss the best part.  
  
“A Living Doll.” She said, “Generally, they are cloth-made children’s toys, hardly up to your knee. This one was wooden, and the size of a large adult. It was intricate, with strings and levers, and seemingly attached to the stage. She was incredible. Genuinely worth of the title ‘Masterwork’. I was fascinated, naturally, and I simply failed to notice when that fascination tipped over, as she slowly, delicately entranced me. I crawled across, examining every crevice. Every seam. I started in at the stage, to see the mechanisms inside, and then her face, so incredibly expressive. After marveling at her hands, I moved to her chest.”  
  
She was breathing heavier, and she took another swig of her alcohol. Strong stuff. I could smell it from over here. I was increasing my own pace, my breathing matching hers.  
  
“By then, she’d filled me full enough I didn’t think her nipples were strange at all, or notice the thrill that shot through me as I tested them through the dress. She was completely motionless. I never suspected. I pulled her dress up to get a better look at her internals, and that was when I felt the push from behind, and her legs locked around my head.”  
  
I looked over at Lyle. She was listening intently, licking her lips. Her eyes kept flicking to me, watching me enjoy myself. It looked like she _thought_ she disapproved, but her breasts told a different story. Not super well endowed, but as an Alp, that could change. Either way, her ‘robe’ had unconsciously shifted to expose her wrapped chest, and I could clearly see her nipples, painfully erect. Her legs were wide open, aimed squarely at Samael. She wasn’t dripping yet, but she was engrossed.  
  
“I learned later, the priest actually _had_ built her. She merely came to life shortly afterwards. At the time though, all I could think about was the smell. Overwhelming, yet like maple syrup. I fought to resist, but even Angels need to breathe, and slowly the taste seeped in, even past my tightly closed lips. The moment after it hit my tongue, my tongue hit her folds. I was utterly enraptured by it. She came into my mouth, and I was enslaved to it. I wanted pleasure. I craved it. I began to touch myself, and that was the end of my service to the Chief God. I serve the Fallen God now, in theory, though I have more pressing matters than her petty concerns.”  
  
I made no secret of the fact that I was masturbating. Climaxing, even. My moans and sultry growls tempted Lyle, I could tell, but she only rolled her eyes at me. Her face, however, was flushed.  
  
Mmmmm~  
  
I came loudly and freely. Lyle was watching me, now. I winked at her as I rode the last waves of pleasure, then I looked back to Samael.  
  
“Thanks, sweetie. That was fucking hot.”  
  
She nodded to me.  
  
“Now,” I said, “Lyle… Tell me about the contract~”  
  
“Th-the contract?” She stammered, confused and flustered.  
  
“Yes, yes. I can see it floating around in your aura. You’ve bound your first terms. I hadn’t even had the chance to teach you that yet. I’m fuckin impressed, honestly. I want to hear _everything._ ”  
  
…Why does the look on her face make me so annoyed?

.oOo.

Her face had gotten less and less sensuously pleased, and more and more disbelieving and annoyed the further I got into the description of my first Contract.  
  
“And that’s about it,” I finished, sheepishly. Her obvious disappointment was undermining how I’d felt about the whole situation. Sure, I’d been tricked quite thoroughly, and that was embarrassing, but it wasn’t as though I was _too_ displeased with the terms themselves.  
  
Magenta’s gaze, though, had me reevaluating, questioning whether there was some way I could have done better… even if it wasn’t by her definition of ‘better’.  
  
Eyes closed, fingers pinching the bridge of her nose, head slightly hung, she looked like you might when you find your kid sister had spilled flour and yeast all across the kitchen, and had decided to use water to clean it up… on the hottest day of the year, turning your house’s carpet into one giant breadloaf.  
  
Not happy, but almost impressed despite herself.  
  
Finally, she said; “Lemme see it.”  
  
“Uh?” I asked.  
  
“The contract. It’s floating around in your aura right now. Focus on that fiery feeling and fork it over.” Her voice was dead and flat, like the end of a long shift at a busy festival, when the resident grouchy old lady was keeping you after to complain about how the roast had been cooked.  
  
‘Not like you can still taste anything anyway, you old bat’ had been an unwise answer at the time, but it’d still felt good.  
  
I could probably call Magenta an ‘old bat’ too, honestly, but just because the wings fit didn’t mean she’d like it any better.  
  
I did as she asked, holding out my hand, fingers spread, in a manner that felt vaguely ‘magical’. I focused in on the feeling that had spread through me when the contract had first formed, and on that flash of fire as it had burned its way into reality.  
  
My fumbling was rewarded as the terms of the contract began to etch themselves into the air with smoke, ash, and cinders. The elegant cursive was much cleaner than my own hand, but I still recognized it as mine, there were certain letters I made the same exact way, just less smoothly. Apparently magic was a better penhand in my own handwriting than I was myself.  
  
…Yeah, that tracks.  
  
I was transfixed as the paper began to smolder into existence, burning in reverse, and filling out the space behind the letters as they traced themselves onto it. It was kinda beautiful actua-  
  
“Can you hurry it up, Lyle?” Magenta said, irritated. I jumped, surprised.  
  
“Uh, sorry.”  
  
Chastened, I turned back to the paper as it suddenly lit ablaze, finishing a process that might have taken a minute or two more in an instant instead.  
  
She stood, snatching the paper from the air before gravity could take it.  
  
She stood there, looming over me, obnoxiously. Her wings spread wide, she glared at the paper as she poured over it.  
  
Well… ‘Obnoxiously’ was a pretty strong word. Magenta really did mean well. I believed that. She had something that she loved and she wanted to share it with everyone. I could understand that.  
  
Her tail ‘fwap-fwaped’ through the air, bangles jangling, and at the apex of each swing, they clattered loudly against each other. Not loudly enough, though. to hide the startling whipcrack on the more aggressive swings.  
  
Then she stopped, and looked up at me.  
  
“This is it? That’s all there is?” she asked, her face inscrutable, her eyes narrowed.  
  
Samael stood, looking over her shoulder. She too read it over once, and then nodded.  
  
“Yes, that’s the whole thing.” She was smiling, smugly.  
  
Why?  
  
Then Magenta joined her, and I got the sense I’d missed something important.  
  
She looked me in the eye, smiling threateningly, but also strangely warmly?  
  
“All these terms, they’re pretty restrictive, but… You never promised not to go after her yourself, Lyle.”  
  
…What?  
  
A sudden thrill shot through me.  
  
“What?” I asked, standing myself. I took the paper from her, looking it over myself.  
  


> Charlotte: “Let’s make a deal.”
> 
> Lyle: “Okay!”
> 
> Charlotte: “You let me out of here, keep the other monsters off of me, and give me a place to stay for a day or so, and I’ll give your girls a chance. But… if one of them tries something, or you let someone else get by you, I go free, and you help me escape.”
> 
> Lyle: “A day or two isn’t much time. What if we agree not to push any demonic energy your way, and get you clean food, but you stay a week?”
> 
> Charlotte: “I’ll want my own room. With a lock.”
> 
> Lyle: “That’s fine, but you can’t hide out in it. You have to spend most of the time actually interacting with us, or there’s no point.”
> 
> Charlotte: “60/40. That’s enough time to sleep and have some privacy. Even if I have to spend time with you that’s better than I get here.”
> 
> Lyle: “That sounds fair.”
> 
> Charlotte: “Deal?”
> 
> Lyle: “Deal.”

Pleasure raced through me in waves, pulsing rapidly. I was having trouble staying standing.  
  
“Mmmmm~” I fell back down into my seat as the contract dismissed itself, shuddering. “Ooooh yeeaaaaaahhh…”  
  
Magenta climbed onto me, and having her in my lap only made things _hotter_.  
  
“You feel that, honey? That rush? You _have_ her. You tricked her, and she’s yours whenever you want her. You have to provide shelter, _but she has to live there_. You have her for a week, and she has to spend most of it _in your clutches_. You have to protect her from **other** monsters, _but she has to let you_. All the while, you’re free to do whatever you wish. Sure, you can’t throw demonic energy at her until she submits, but that’s brutish and inelegant _anyway_.”  
  
“Aah, aah, aah~” It was sinking in how completely _fucked_ Charlotte was, if I so much as wished it, and it felt so, so, so **good**.  
  
Magenta kissed me on the lips, aggressively, pressing her tongue into my mouth, and I pulled her against me, and then started to slowly envelop her, before I realized what I was doing. Her tail snaked down, past my robes, past my underwear, and began to tease me mercilessly.  
  
“All you have to do, Lyle, is slide across her, just like you’re doing to me now. It’s so natural, isn’t it? She’ll be safe from everything else that might want her there, _and completely at your mercy_.”  
  
Magenta shoved her tail deep inside me, the bangles trapped at the end by her arousal, and their intricacies tracing themselves across the most sensitive place in my body.  
  
I came immediately.  
  
Magenta slid off me, smirking, and I was too far out of it to protest, despite wanting more.  
  
Slowly, though, I came back down, and realized what had happened with a clearer head.  
  
I… that had _really_ got me going? Really?  
  
“I-I didn’t know! I w-won’t, I can’t! I want to _convince_ her, not break her!” I said.  
  
Magenta had the audacity to wink at me.  
  
“Sure, Lyle, sure.” She walked towards the door, leaving me still helpless on the couch. “I don’t know what I was so worried about, temperament aside, I knew you were a natural from the moment I first touched you. Enjoy the toys and dreams, darling. Stop by my studio in the next day or so, will you? I have something else for you~”  
  
She left, and I was alone in the room with Samael.  
  
“I uh…” I looked at her.  
  
She was still smiling herself, but with a sort of refinement. Her hips shook a little, and, as she was naked, I could see she was clearly dripping wet, and her nipples were absolutely erect.  
  
“I quite liked the look of that,” she said, and she leaned down, putting her hand on my shoulder. “I want to try it.”  
  
I collected myself after a moment, and continued, “I’d wanted to talk to you, actually, and-”  
  
Her other hand came up, and her finger rested on my lip.  
  
“We can talk after.”  
  
“A-after?”  
  
She laughed, warm and sweet, and the sound of it made me feel safe. She stood back up, and her hands slid away from my body.  
  
“After. I’ll be waiting~”  
  
She walked away, toward her door, just left of Charlotte’s, and slipped inside, sending one last heated look my way.  
  
Oh.  
  
 _After_.  
  
Heh. Okay.

.oOo.

Enemy Territory  
Morningwood  
Founder Faust von Frankenstein's Manor  
Temporary Personal Quarters  
  
  
Day 12 of Capture  
Evening  
  
  
  
  
It wasn’t the noises that bothered me. Not the voices, either. Not the wall, nor how I could hear them through it, and not that I was trying to sleep.  
  
It was the emotion, I think.  
  
That’s what it was.  
  
“Mmmm~” Samael sounded happier than I’d ever heard her. It wasn’t the depraved squeals of helpless rut, nor the raunchy calls of the corrupted as they praised their corruptors.  
  
I’d seen Samael all but glow under the light of the Chief God, but she never sounded so…  
  
Satisfied? Content?  
  
Near as I could tell, Lyle was preening her wings for her, something even I’d never been allowed to do. She put it off as much as she could, and she’d always been embarrassed about the process. It would take her hours to do alone, but she referred to it as ‘a trial from the Chief Herself’ to clean her wings. She’d seemed grateful at the time, but also much more ashamed.  
  
I hadn’t exactly needed the confirmation, but a colleague of mine had mentioned that an Angel’s wings were… sensitive. It was hard not to have gotten suspicious on my own, though. What other trial could She have given to her creatures, but to prove they could resist the temptations of their enemies?  
  
Enemies…  
  
That’s what we are now. …I wonder how far she’s fallen? It’s supposed to be nearly instant. She certainly seems it, strutting about naked, openly aroused. But… well, I’d be remiss not to have noticed at the very least she’s a dark reflection of her old self. They all seem to be, Sally possibly excluded, although others always had more trouble watching her than I had, for whatever reason.  
  
It would be much simpler if something else had been shoved into her head. If I could _convince_ myself she was dead already.  
  
Ha.  
  
That would be **too** easy.  
  
What’s a Hero without a fight against insurmountable odds, after all?  
  
These rags… I wonder if I can trust them? There’s no acceptable way to check, of course, but if they really reduce pleasure, they’re invaluable. It’s not like I can’t wear real armor overtop, after all. There’s still too many ways for them to win, but… even pruning away a few of their potential victories is frankly invaluable.  
  
Of course…  
  
It may not matter. I’d failed to be specific enough in my terms. Lyle was aware of that now, but so was I. Having to listen to the sounds from next door is well worth the information I overheard. There weren’t many ways for a physical fighter to effectively counter a Slime type. Generally, mages or rangers handled them for that reason.  
  
Some more supplies might help, but… she was incredibly dangerous, for an idiot. Beepatrice was as well, and I couldn’t discount a Lich… Dark Valkyries are frightening enough on their own. I’d really stepped in it.  
  
Still, even having gone feral, Beeps seemed to keep to non-lethality, which is something that could be used to pen her in, if I was quick. Her obsession with Lyle as well, although I’d need to poke that sore very carefully.  
  
Sally seemed to have been caught up in the drama typical to powerful Undead, and it would be easy to turn that against her.  
  
And Samael… well, if needbe, I could hurt her heart, at least.  
  
Lyle really was the difficult one. Freezing her solid might be the only option, and that was no sure thing.  
  
Most Mamono don’t realize it, but they’re incredibly vulnerable to magic that binds them. Their typical magical defense, the Succubize spell, turns incoming magical spells into sexual ones, but we’d discovered anything that could be construed that way already could still slip through.  
  
There’d been work done to try and pin down exactly how to use that against them, but although there were those who fetishized violence and murder, they were much more a liability than an asset. No one had ever successfully produced a “Murder Mage” as the theory was called, without getting their operation burned to the ground by their subjects, and Mamono seemed to recognize even potential candidates as someone to be avoided, and shockingly, destroyed.  
  
Mamono, as a rule, rarely killed, not even on accident, but they didn’t suffer psychopaths.  
  
Binding spells, though… they were straightforwardly useful. Mamono were deeply vulnerable if a spell was cast while a bindings fetishist was nearby.  
  
I didn’t agree with exposing civilians to that kind of thing, but by getting involved with that sort of sexual deviancy, they were already essentially lost. The school of thought was that even if they turned via ambient exposure eventually, they could be used to exterminate dozens. It was a… net gain.  
  
Heh.  
  
Either way, Slimes were the exception to the rule. There were no bindings they couldn’t slither out of, and I had no binding magic in any case.  
  
Troublesome.  
  
Relying on her goodwill simply wasn’t an option.  
  
I needed an edge.  
  
Perhaps literally? A spear of Ice magic? Lyle had said they’d provide me with a custom work, and I’d be a fool to pass up a specially crafted monster weapon, when the contract would prevent them from trapping it. It pained me to admit, but their forge-masters were simply better, broadly. Some of our true Master level blacksmiths could compete, but they were generally unavailable even to Heroes, except for the best of the best.  
  
If I did this right, I might be able to make it through this.  
  
…I shouldn’t count Blackberry out either. She’s been… odd. She’s faster than me, and seems fascinated _with_ me. I’m… I could use anti-cavalry tactics but… Those sort of assume the horse won’t… _scream_ like a human. …I’m not sure I could handle hearing her squealing, even knowing she’d probably survive.  
  
I’ll do what I have to do, I won’t waver, but…  
  
I wish things were different.


End file.
